From Mexico 1986 to 2026: Broos will bow out with dream swansong if he takes Bafana to World Cup

Hugo Broos will definitely retire from coaching if, and after, he takes Bafana Bafana to the 2026 World Cup in Mexico, Canada and the US in June and July next year.

And what a swansong that would be. The 72-year-old coach loves the sound of the symmetry, having been a somewhat ageing bit-player but crucial, experienced head, in the great Belgian fourth-placed finishers who lost in the semifinals against Diego Maradona’s Argentina at Mexico 1986.

There is another part of Broos, who won multiple Belgian league and European titles mostly for Anderlecht as a centreback of repute in the 1970s, that wishes he was just that bit younger so he could continue a project with Bafana, with which he has developed a love affair, just a few years more.

Bafana were drawn with Egypt, Zimbabwe and Angola on Monday in a manageable group B of the next Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) in December and January. Having won bronze for their best finish in 24 years in January and February last year in Ivory Coast under the coach who steered a young Cameroon to the 2017 title, then gone the rest of 2024 unbeaten, many in Africa might see Bafana as dark horses in Morocco, though Broos cautions against such a notion.

The coach’s other major mission in 2025 is to capitalise on a strong start for Bafana, and appalling one by group C heavyweights Nigeria, and qualify South Africa for a first World Cup other than as hosts since 2002.

Broos’s passion for that mission, at a time when some talent is finally emerging in South Africa, is part of what engineered, after two decades of depressing underachievement for Bafana, what had seemed a near-impossible turnaround.

That, and his notorious outspokenness that, early in his tenure, often landed him in hot water for his usually astute criticisms of the failings of the structures of football in South Africa, was evident in a round table with media on Thursday.

“I have to correct you — I understood the South Africans but the South Africans did not understand me,” the coach fired back at a suggestion he had taken some time to 'get' this country.

“They criticised me because I ‘didn’t know the African culture’ and ‘disrespected the nation’. I just did my job. And I’m not changing when you compare it to two years ago — I’m the same Hugo Broos from two years ago and working the same way.

“But it had to change here in South Africa. I said it already, after the first year I wanted to quit.

“To answer the other part of the question I’m very happy here in South Africa. And honestly it’s a pity I’m already that old, because I would be very happy if tomorrow the Safa president [Danny Jordaan] came to me and said, ‘Coach, two more years’. But I’m too old for that.”

Jordaan has been under siege as South African Football Association boss for years, ramped up by his arrest and trial for fraud.

Broos played down any concern he might have about instability at his employers, again recounting a story of how he was once accused of demanding money to include a player in his squad in Cameroon as an example of relativity of working conditions.

“That can happen in every country, but that cannot happen here. And you know it should be totally normal that if we don’t qualify for the World Cup, after Afcon I will stop. Why should I go on to June then?

“But yeah, if it’s what I expect, if we qualify for the World Cup, you’ll still see me for more than a year now,” he said, to chuckles from the room.

“And I’m happy with that. It’s also a big ambition for me to be there. I was there as a player and I want to go as a coach too, then stop my career because I will be 74 next year. I think it would be a very nice moment to end my career — let’s hope we can achieve it.

“I’m very, very, very happy.”

Broos even has few concerns over a squad that, with the introduction and increased emergence of some young stars such as Relebohile Mofokeng, Oswin Appollis, Rushwin Dortley and Thalente Mbatha, might have become stronger since last year’s Afcon, even with some big injuries.

“I’m not worried. The only thing I’m happy about, and I hope he [Zwane] can progress, is the [long-term issue of] replacement for Themba. We have to count on him [being back, maybe] from March already, certainly from June. I think he will be very sharp too, he will be ready. And then we will see in September.

“But I think [Orlando Pirates’ Patrick] Maswanganyi did it [deputised for Zwane] very well in the last game, and we also have Mofokeng — he can also play that position.

“So I’m less worried than I was the moment Themba was injured. But we also have to think a bit about Themba being 36 — an injury like that, I hope he finds the rhythm after being out for a year.”

Broos said Sphehelo Sithole, a star of Bafana’s central midfield alongside Teboho Mokoena in Ivory Coast, has indicated he will start training soon, though the games in March could be too soon for the Portugal-based player. “But he’s on the right way.”

Having taken continental powerhouse and dreaded nemesis Nigeria to a penalty shoot-out in the last semifinal, markedly outplaying the Super Eagles, eventual runners-up to the hosts, in the opening half, many might see Bafana as outside chance challengers in Morocco.

You know that for an African player, playing in Afcon is the end-all of the world. If you ask and African player to choose between an Afcon and a World Cup, I think more might choose the Afcon. And that makes the games in the group stages so difficult.

“I think it’s very dangerous to put a goal that says, ‘We need to reach the semifinals.’ With the experience I have of Afcon, it’s so difficult. Already to pass the group stages you play teams that are 200% motivated,” Broos said.

“You know that for an African player, playing in Afcon is the end-all of the world. If you ask an African player to choose between an Afcon and a World Cup, I think more might choose the Afcon. And that makes the games in the group stages so difficult.

“Then when you pass that you need a bit of luck. And, OK, quality and so on, but you need luck too. We had it at the last Afcon. Yeah, we played a good game against Morocco but if [Achraf] Hakimi scored the penalty [where he skimmed the crossbar in the 85th minute at 1-0 down in the last 16 clash], I’m not sure we would win the game.

“I think the only thing at Afcon is you have to pass the group stage. If you don’t, this is not good for a team like South Africa. And then you can have a bit of luck to play against a good team, but not really the best team [in the knockouts].

“Because on the other side we were a bit unlucky [in the semifinal] against Nigeria, where if Mudau scored we were in the final. But that’s a tournament. I don’t think Ronwen [Williams] will save five penalties in a game again [as in the quarterfinal against Cape Verde, one in open play and four in the shoot-out]. And OK, this is skill and talent, but you have to be honest and say OK, the luck was on our side in that game.

“But again, passing the group stages — if we don’t it’s bad.”