Broos wants to help Jayden Adams be a Bafana star, says he must heed ‘wake-up call’

At an important crossroads in his career, Jayden Adams has received a message from a legend of the game in Hugo Broos: to get his mind completely on football so he can become the player his tremendous potential threatens he can be.

Bafana Bafana coach Broos’s coaching career — and mostly his 2017 Africa Cup of Nations title with a young Cameroon, and to a lesser degree his league titles at Club Brugge in the 1990s — are what are most known by South Africans.

A strapping centreback, he was a formidable player in his own right. Broos’ trophy cabinet is packed with medals including the Belgian First Division (now Jupiler League) three times with Anderlecht in the 1970s and once with Brugge in 1987-88, in an almost 20-year top flight career. That second league title came after the ageing Broos was a bit-player, but experienced head, in the famous Belgian team that reached the Mexico 1986 World Cup semifinals, succumbing to Diego Maradona-inspired Argentina.

So when Broos talks about what it takes to make it to the top level as a player, young, emerging stars would be advised to listen.

At 23, Adams is taking big strides into top-flight South African football with coach Steve Barker’s wonderfully competitive, tightly-run 2023 Carling Knockout champions and 2024 MTN8 runners-up Stellenbosch FC. He has played more than 130 games, with, given his undoubted creative abilities, his goals scored column perhaps a little lacking with 10. Adams received a boost to his fledgling international career being selected by Broos in the squad for this year’s Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon), where Bafana had their best finish in 24 years winning bronze.

Along with Orlando Pirates’ Relebohile Mofokeng and Mohau Nkota, Polokwane City’s Oswin Appollis, Mamelodi Sundowns’ Thapelo Maseko, Asekho Tiwani, Siyabonga Mabena and Kutlwano Letlhaku, and others, Adams is part of one of the most exciting emerging generations in South Africa in years.

Last month he stumbled. Broos sent Adams home from the camp in Gqeberha — where Bafana beat Congo 5-0 in their Afcon qualifier to be on the verge of reaching the next edition in Morocco — for disciplinary reasons.

The details are murky, but Adams reportedly could not be contacted by his club or Bafana team officials after Stellies’ 3-1 MTN8 final defeat against Orlando Pirates at Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban on October 5, missed his flight to Gqeberha and flew to Cape Town instead.

He was excluded from the rest of the camp, and not selected for this month’s final two qualifiers away against Uganda on Friday and against South Sudan at Cape Town Stadium on November 19, where two draws or one win will see Bafana through. Adams has only played a handful of games at Stellies since the incident.

As his team trained at Dobsonville Stadium on Monday ahead of their departure for the first game in Kampala, Broos was asked about Adams’ Bafana future.

 “I have talked before about attitude. If you don’t have the right attitude you can have as much talent as you want, you will never achieve a big career — never,” the coach said.

“So I think Jayden is young and it’s totally normal he makes mistakes. I hope he learns from his mistakes.

“So I punished him for something. I see that after the last Bafana camp he also had a bit of trouble to play for Stellenbosch. That has to be a reason. So that means also, I think that the coach [Steve Barker of Stellenbosch] is not really happy with his attitude too.

“And again, if he learns from that then there is no problem. And I hope he learns from it. And I hope that he knows that having talent is not enough. You need to have the right attitude.

“And it would be a pity if he were to spoil his career by not having the right attitude. And so we have to help him because he’s a young player.

“Because he’s not here now and wasn’t in the last camp, I hope this was a wake-up call for him. And that he doesn’t play at the moment at Stellenbosch, that that is also a wake-up call.

He’s had to persevere a lot and endure a lot of challenges in his life. To see him now as a Bafana Bafana player and in my opinion one of the best players in the PSL is just a privilege. I think Jayden can play in any league in the world.

“And that he will learn from that and I will see a Jayden again on the level that we are used to seeing. And then there is no problem — Jayden will be with Bafana Bafana.”

A video produced by Adams’ representatives, Forwardzone, provides some of the details of his rise from the tough neighbourhood of Idas Valley in Stellenbosch, where father Juanito was a lifelong Kaizer Chiefs and Liverpool fan. The midfielder’s journey has taken him from starting to play at five, through Ajax Cape Town’s development, Stellenbosch’s reserves and being an emerging star in the Premiership.

In the video, Stellies’ DStv Diski Challenge (under-23 and reserve team) coach Evangelos Vellios said Adams “is the most talented footballer I have worked” with.

“He’s had to persevere a lot and endure a lot of challenges in his life. To see him now as a Bafana Bafana player and in my opinion one of the best players in the PSL is just a privilege. I think Jayden can play in any league in the world.”

At his age, Adams is at a crossroads, as he transitions from young talent to established top flight player and full-fledged international. He still has strides to make nailing down a permanent place in Bafana. Broos’ selection of the skilful attacker for the Nations Cup squad was a major show of confidence in his potential.

Being sidelined from the national squad for an error of judgment was a mistake at a crucial nexus his career. As Broos said, if he takes it as a wake-up call and gets his head down to work again, showing the right attitude at Stellenbosch, there seems no reason Adams cannot break back into Bafana and be a regular by the time the Nations Cup comes round, where their emerging young brigade could even make South Africa contenders.