“I am already thinking about the day I have to announce 23 players. It will not be easy in certain positions,” said the Bafana head coach.
Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos has admitted it will not be easy to whittle down his squad to 23 players when he announces his selection for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations finals in early December.
Broos’ Bafana back in the big time
Broos and his technical team have built a formidable pool of players in his four-and-a-half years or so in charge of the side.
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Bafana finished third at the last Africa Cup of Nations, qualified comfortably for this latest edition, and have now also qualified for the 2026 Fifa World Cup finals in the USA, Canada and Mexico next year.
Broos even said that he saw players in Saturday’s 3-1 friendly win over Zambia that have added to a pleasant headache ahead of the final announcement.
“I am already thinking about the day I have to announce 23 players. It will not be easy in certain positions,” said Broos.
“Today we gave playing time to players who haven ’t played so much in the past, we saw how they react and are adapting to the team tactics.
“I am certainly satisfied, not 100 percent, but I wanted to see what I saw today.”
“I think the guys today, certainly in the second half, we can use them in the future, and maybe already for the AFCON.”
The Bafana head coach made special mention of 21 year-old TS Galaxy central defender Khulumani Ndumane. Ndamane came on as a second half substitute for Mbekezeli Mbokazi against Zambia.
“Ndamane … today he was a bit hesitant, but we saw him against Rwanda (in Bafana’s final World Cup qualifiers) and he was very good. It is not easy to come into the game.
“It was easy two years ago (to select the squad for AFCON. Now it is very difficult. We have more than 23 players who can go and who deserve to go.
“The decisions will be made by me. Some will be painful for the players, but also for me personally. It is not such a nice thing to drop players.”
The Zambia game is the final friendly, for now, that Bafana will play until the AFCON kicks off. Bafana’s first Group B match is on December 22 against Angola. But Broos is not worried about them being under-prepared.
‘We have only played African teams’
“In the last four years we have only played African teams,” he said.
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“We don’t have to play another two or three teams before the AFCON. It will be a bit different for the World Cup. For now we just have to try and have a good preparation and a team that is at 100 percent. And we don’t want to start this AFCON like we did the last (Bafana lost to Mali in their opening match). We want to win the first game.”
