SAZI HADEBE | How can our talented young players become superstars if they’re not given a chance?

As I was writing this column Percy Tau was on the verge of playing possibly the biggest game of his professional footballer career — that is if he featured in Al Ahly’s line-up against Real Madrid in the semifinal of the Fifa Club World Cup in Morocco.

There was no reason for Tau not to be part of Ahly’s team on Wednesday night against the Spanish giants, having scored a wonder goal in an earlier match in the competition.

A few weeks ago another South African striker, Lyle Foster, moved from Belgian side KVC Westerlo to English Championship table-topping club Burnley for R205m in a record deal involving a South African. Foster has already made two FA Cup appearances for Burnley, playing 88 minutes when the Clarets knocked out Ipswich Town 2-1 in a fourth round replay on Tuesday night to set up a last 16 home clash against Fleetwood Town on March 1.

Lebo Mothiba, a gangling striker who, I’m sure some South Africans have forgotten, played for Bafana Bafana, is in better form and shape at his Ligue 1 club Racing Strasbourg. Mothiba seems to have recovered from injuries that troubled him since he played for Bafana in the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon). He’s managed to score at least two goals in 12 appearances in the top league in France.

Cassius Mailula, a 21-year-old Mamelodi Sundowns prodigy that few, including this writer, knew much about before the 2022-2023 season started, is having the time of his life in his first full season in the Premier Soccer League, banging in seven league goals in 11 appearances.

Why I am raving about these South African strikers you may ask? Well, this week in which South Africa mourns the death of one the best defensive midfielders to ever don the Bafana jersey, John “Dungi” Moeti, Bafana immediately came to mind. I couldn’t stop drifting down Memory Lane, back to the good old days when South Africa had a Bafana team everybody was proud of, and knew almost every player by name and nickname. Everybody was familiar with Bafana players because these were the legends crowned African champions in 1996, with Moeti part of the squad.

People speak of jeopardising young players’ futures if they’re prematurely thrown into the international football deep end. I disagree when it comes to Mailula, who I’ve watched in many Sundowns matches. I’m convinced he’s more than ready to fight for a place in the Bafana squad.

So today when I mention some of these strikers, some of whom have played for Bafana a few times, I have no doubt there’s little known about some of them. This speaks to the downfall of a Bafana team that has missed the last three Fifa World Cups since South Africa hosted the event in 2010. But these players, including the uncapped Mailula, have their chance of becoming household names in South Africa and beyond if they maintain their form and health and help Bafana qualify for the 2023 Afcon early next year in Ivory Coast.

Tau is the most well-known, experienced and talented of the four strikers and if not for his injuries he, like Foster, would have already played the first of the 2023 Afcon qualifiers we lost 2-1 against Morocco in June last year.

I hope Bafana coach Hugo Broos has been paying attention and will cast his net as wide as possible when putting together the squad for the matches against Liberia. If Broos does that I doubt he will leave out the in-form Mailula and may have to look at Mothiba for the first time since he took over in May 2021. Broos will name his squad early next month for back-to-back Afcon 2023 qualifiers against Liberia — the two matches that will earn Bafana a spot at next year’s showpiece if they can, at least, get four points from them.

If we get our selection right, especially with in-form strikers, maybe we can begin to see a Bafana we’ve been yearning for since the days of Moeti, who was unlucky to be injured a few days before the Bafana squad that represented South Africa at the 1998 Fifa World Cup was announced. 

Foster has already shown what he can offer Bafana with the goal he scored against Morocco in Rabat. Tau missed that match because of injury and I believe we could have had more chances to score if he was available.

If well used, Mothiba offers what the late Philemon “Chippa” Masinga, another Bafana legend who played with Moeti in that glorious 1996 Bafana team, once provided for Bafana. Mothiba’s height and physicality will trouble any defence and I would like to think Broos won’t make the mistake of forgetting him when he names his team for Liberia.

People speak of jeopardising young players’ futures if they’re prematurely thrown into the international football deep end. I disagree when it comes to Mailula, who I’ve watched in many Sundowns matches. I’m convinced he’s more than ready to fight for a place in the Bafana squad. At 21, Mailula is old by world football standards.

If we’re serious about developing a stronger Bafana, we should not waste time with a precocious talent like Mailula. I say let’s unleash him in some of these Afcon qualifiers to gain the international experience he never had in junior national teams.

My hope is that Broos will have no excuses for not picking these players. With them I think Bafana may have a chance to improve their scoring rate, which has often let them down in qualifying for major events in recent years.