On Wednesday, the South African Football Association (SAFA) appointed Hugo Broos as the new Bafana Bafana coach. Broos, a Belgian football coach, had previously managed the Cameroonian senior men’s national football team and is expected in the Rainbow Nation next week.
Upon his arrival, Broos is scheduled to meet all football stakeholders including members of the media and address the Press.
In his initial remarks about his appointment, the 69-year-old Belgian said he was excited to take charge of one of the biggest teams in Africa: “South Africa has a rich football history and is among the powerhouse on the continent. The country has full of quality and I am coming to coach a truly football nation with massive potential.”
One of the top objectives for the new manager would be to completely overhaul the national football team, Bafana Bafana, and craft out a side that will compete favourably in all major upcoming global tournaments such as the TOTAL Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) and the FIFA World Cup.
He demonstrated a keen awareness of his task when he said: ‘’My 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 Bafana side for the future.”
Broos comes to the side after they missed qualifying for Cameroon 2021, next year’s AFCON, missing out to Ghana and Sudan from Group C. But, he is just in time for what will be his first mission: making sure that failure does not repeat itself as qualifiers for Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup are just ahead. The South Africans are grouped alongside Ethiopia, Ghana and Zimbabwe.
Recall that the 69-year-old Broos, who starred as a defender in his active days with RSC Anderlecht and Club Briggs was also capped 24 times by the national team. In his managerial career on the continent, Broos won the 2017 TOTAL AFCON hosted by Gabon as coach of Cameroon’s Indomitable Lions.
He has a long list of teams he has managed including the two sides he played for and others such as Genk (Belgium), Trabzonspor (Turkey) and JS Kabylie and NA Dey (Algeria). Prior to his appointment with Bafana Bafana, he was Sporting Director of KV Oostende, a Belgian football club from the city of Ostend, West Flanders, that was founded in 1904 as VG Oostende.
