Youngsters are Bafana’s future, says Broos as he urges PSL coaches to maintain ‘SA’s evolution’

Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos is enthused about seeing his counterparts in the Premier Soccer League (PSL) showing trust in young players. Broos boldly referred to this development as “South Africa's evolution”, one the 72-year-old Belgian hopes will be maintained for many seasons to come.

It's no mistake that a young and exciting generation of players coming through in the PSL — one of the best in decades — is catching Broos's eye. The Bafana coach is a firm believer in younger players and doesn't think twice about giving them a chance when he's convinced of their potential.

In fact, that's what Broos emphasised from the day he arrived in South Africa to take the reins of Bafana in May 2021, telling all and sundry that the international careers of most Bafana players who had failed to take the team to 2021 Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon were over. That was not because he didn't value or trust them, but because he felt the team was ageing and needed younger players.

“My main focus will be to weave in new players who have hunger and desire to achieve things. Young players are ambitious and want to prove a point. I need to start from there because I want to build a strong Bafana side for the future,” Broos said on May 5 2021, when he was unveiled as Molefi Ntseki's successor.

It was after this that young players such as Ethan Brooks, now 23 and playing for AmaZulu FC, was drafted into the Bafana squad that was to face Uganda in a friendly match in June 2021. In the XI that faced the Cranes, it was only skipper Ronwen Williams, Innocent Maela and Lebohang Maboe who survived from the combination Ntseki had before Broos's appointment. 

Among the debutants in the Uganda friendly was a young striker, Evidence Makgopa, then 20, who was playing for Baroka FC at that time. Coming on as a substitute, he capped the evening with a brace in a 3-2 victory. Now 24 and playing for Orlando Pirates, Makgopa has become a regular feature in Broos's squad and was one of standout performers for Bafana when they won a surprise bronze medal at the 2023 Afcon in Ivory Coast this year. 

While some young players like Brooks couldn't keep their place in Bafana for one reason or another, Makgopa is still very much part of the coach's combination. He is in the latest squad that will face Uganda and South Sudan in the last two of the 2025 Afcon qualifiers on Friday in Kampala and on Tuesday in Cape Town, where Bafana need a win or two draws to progress.

“You see Mohau [Nkota, 20, at Orlando Pirates], [Mduduzi] Shabalala [20] at Kaizer Chiefs, the one who scored two goals [against Marumo Gallants on Sunday] for Mamelodi Sundowns [Kutlwano Letlhaku, 18]. So little by little you see younger players coming. I'm very happy with that,” Broos said.

“But don't ask me if they'll be in Bafana next time. We'll see — they're young players. They're only [about] 20 and we can still wait one year before we call them. But this [that they're playing in the PSL] is a good evolution for South African football, that younger players are given an opportunity in big team. In the small clubs they're forced to play them because they don't have the money.

“SuperSport [United] are also a club where young players are very easily in the first team. I can just be happy as a Bafana Bafana coach that I see that evolution happening in the clubs, and not only in the small clubs, but also big clubs.” 

In the squad doing duty this week Broos has Relebohile Mofokeng, a 20-year-old dynamic attacker who the Bafana coach was encouraged to draft in when he saw Jose Riveiro believing in him at Pirates. Mofokeng is one of the players Bafana may pin their hopes on when they play in Afcon finals in Morocco at the end of next year.

While Broos has been encouraged to see Chiefs, Sundowns and Pirates believing in young players, clubs like Stellenbosch, SuperSport and Cape Town City have found a niche in young players, using them to sustain and keep their status in the PSL. SuperSport in particular, has been grooming younger players who are sold to bigger clubs, with Tshwane rivals Sundowns the biggest beneficiary in recent years. 

While Broos has been hesitant to start with Mofokeng in recent qualifiers, he did confirm that if Bafana get full points against Uganda and qualify for Afcon, he will definitely give more time to the likes of Mofokeng at the Cape Town Stadium on Tuesday.

“It really doesn't matter that you achieve your goals with old or young players. The most important thing is that you achieve your goals. To do it with young players it means you have a future in front of you. This what may happen with South Africa if we can qualify again for Afcon with this young team and we can do the same with (2026) the World Cup.

“That makes a big difference and that's what we'll try to achieve because South Africa has for a long time never been in big tournaments, never in the World Cup since 2010. But again, you know my opinion ... this was a present because you organised it.

The value of players will increase when you're twice in a row at Afcon. It means that you have good players. It's good for South African football and it's very important to be there. For us in general as a Bafana team, it will give us confidence and confirmation that we've become a good team, and it can help us qualify for the World Cup.

—  Hugo Broos

“So, if you can achieve that now with this young team than you make a very big step ahead. And automatically the value of South African players will increase 100%. That means there will be more interests in South African players overseas. There will more opportunities for South African players to go in Europe to play. That can only be good for South African football. So yes, we're in front of a big opportunity.”

Bafana will resume qualification for the 2026 Fifa World Cup in March, and by the opening salvo of results that saw Nigeria stutter badly, they have a decent chance of reaching their first global showpiece other than as hosts since 2002. Broos said if his team reaches Afcon, as he is confident they will, it is important they press home that boost in confidence by going to a World Cup.

“It should be a boost of confidence to qualify for the Afcon again because it doesn't exist so much in South African football that twice in a row you qualify for it. We could write a little bit of history.

“Also, the value of players will increase when you're twice in a row at Afcon. It means that you have good players. It's good for South African football and it's very important to be there. For us in general as a Bafana team, it will give us confidence and confirmation that we've become a good team, and it can help us qualify for the World Cup.”

Bafana have qualified 11 times for Afcon, but it was only between 1996 to 2008 that they qualified successively (seven times), before doing it again in 2013 and 2015.