Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos has hit back at the criticism he received early on when he took over the national team.
In the three years he has been at the helm, the 72-year-old Belgian coach has guided Bafana to two Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon). In the 2023 Afcon, South Africa reached the semi-finals for the first time since 2000.
A few weeks ago, he did mention that if his side fails to qualify for Afcon 2025, he would resign. Bafana qualified for the tournament with two matches to spare and Hugo Broos retracted his initial statement.
“You know I’m not stupid, I knew we would qualify [for AFCON],” he said.
“I said [if we don’t qualify for 2026 World Cup I would leave too], but if you compare the team from two years ago and the team now, there’s a difference of day and night in everything.
“In quality, in power, in results, in whatever you say – there’s a big difference and we worked on it to make this team, it was not easy.
Hugo Broos takes Bafana to new heights
“Certainly in the beginning, nobody understood what I was doing, young players, no players from Chiefs, what is that? Nothing was good. Now we are where we are, and everyone is proud of Bafana Bafana at the moment,” he said.
South Africa finished their Afcon qualifiers unbeaten ahead of Uganda, South Sudan and Congo. Under Hugo Broos, Bafana have only lost one match this year and that was their Afcon opener against Mali in January.
Can Broos qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup?
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