South Africa's football future shines ahead of key World Cup matches

Despite what happens between Wednesday and Tuesday night, the future of South African football, particularly for the senior national team, is in safe hands.

History beckons for SA football in the next few days. Amajita will face Colombia in the U20 FIFA World Cup Round of 16 in Chile, while Bafana Bafana will clash with Zimbabwe and Rwanda in two crucial FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

A victory for Amajita would make them the first South African national team, male or female, to reach the global showpiece quarter-final, having last reached the U20 quarter-final in the 2009 edition in Egypt, before Banyana Banyana followed suit at the 2023 global showpiece in Australia.

And that’s not all. Should Bafana beat Zimbabwe in Durban on Friday, and Rwanda in Mbombela next Tuesday convincingly, they could secure their ticket to the global showpiece in North America for the first time through the qualifiers since 2002. They qualified only as hosts in 2010.

Amajita will firstly be in the spotlight on Wednesday night, with coach Raymond’s team having finished second in Group E, behind the United States, after coming back from the opening game defeat against France to hammer New Caledonia and the US, respectively.

By virtue of reaching the Round of 16—emulating the class of ‘09—Amajita have won hearts, proving that their maiden reign as champions of continental football in Morocco earlier this winter was no fluke.

Broos is one of the football personnel who have been impressed by Mdaka’s troops, insisting that they are on their way to becoming the cornerstones of South African football.

“After they won the AFCON, I said that they are a team we need to keep an eye on,” Broos said. “So, after their win on Sunday (progressing to the Round of 16), they are continuing to do well again. So, I think they’ll be very important for the future.”

But while Broos has been relatively pleased with the team and is an admirer of youngsters—as he believes that as long as they are good enough, they are old enough—he says he won’t rush to integrate youngsters into the Bafana set-up, at least not for the upcoming major tournament.

“I don’t think we have to count on those guys already for AFCON in December, that’s very soon,” Broos stated. “Let them play well at the World Cup, and then we’ll see later on which players we can eventually call up to the team.”

Broos, referring to Thabang Matuludi 26, and Malibongwe Khoza, 21, who flanked him during Bafana’s arrival press conference at the Dobsonville Stadium on Monday afternoon, says they’ll always call up players they feel are good enough to play for the national team.

“We started a few months ago to put younger players in our team—look at the two guys who are next to me here, they are not old, old,” Broos said. “They are young players who arrived in the top flight and played well for their clubs. So, that’s the same with the U20s.

“So, I think it will be a great experience for those guys to play at the World Cup—after AFCON—and not go home after the group stages. So, yeah, it’s very good. And for the future of Bafana Bafana, it’s certainly something we can be happy about.”