Johannesburg — Astute coach Dan “Dance” Malesela has taken a swipe at his Bafana Bafana counterpart Hugo Broos who is hellbent on rebuilding the national team, while overlooking the on form, seasoned players.
After being announced as the new Bafana coach last year, the silver-haired Broos didn’t mince his words, saying he was going to clean house: inject more youngsters into his new look Bafana team.
That feat which meant that Broos would select players on merit rather than status divided the football fraternity as some were happy, while others wanted him to balance between experienced players and youngsters.
At first, the latter appeared to be the case, with players such Siyanda Xulu and Ronwen Williams (both 30) added into the mix, before Broos changed, overlooking duo Andile Jali and Themba Zwane.
The duo was colossal for Mamelodi Sundowns this season, inspiring the team to a domestic treble, while Jali also dominated the nominees’ chart at the recently announced annual PSL awards.
But Broos remained unshaken to recall the duo to Bafana set-up ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers this month, among his reasons, citing that they are overage and do not fit in his plans.
The omission of Jali, 32, and Zwane, 32, has seen the Belgian come under criticism even from his counterparts, including Malesela who believes the crème de la crème should be selected for Bafana.
“The senior national team is not a place where you are going to start building,” said Malesela who was speaking at the side-lines of the 30th anniversary of the SA Football Coaches Association yesterday.
“You don’t build at the senior national team; you play to win. There’re high competitions and there are positions in the world rankings that are at stake. You need to get readymade people, every time.
“Let the clubs fix. Always look at who’s next, at the players that are performing at that time and play them at the senior national team. We want that success and recognition as a country as well.
“You cannot go and develop players at the national team level. You can’t! You are developing them to go where beyond the national team? They are going to stay there. And don’t talk about 4-5 years!”
After Downs’ dominance last term, having won all the local trophies that were up for grabs, Malesela believes that Broos’ team should have largely consisted of the treble victors in the qualifiers this month.
“If you have six or nine players from Sundowns that are ready to play for the national team, let them go. Spain was doing it. Take them if you feel that they are good enough for the team,” he said.
“What happens when a young player gets out of hand, misbehaves and is out of football? You’d be building somebody that will be out of football or gets injured. Get readymade people now.”
Under the regime of Broos, Bafana failed to qualify for the World Cup in Qatar later this year after finishing second in the qualifiers, while they were thrashed 5-0 by France in an international friendly.
However, Broos has no excuse but to qualify for the 2023 Afcon finals. They are in Group K alongside Morocco and Liberia after Zimbabwe were suspended by FIFA from football activities this year.
IOL Sport