BAFANA IN GOOD HANDS

DESPITE what happens between on Wednesday and next Tuesday, the future of South African football, particularly for Bafana Bafana, is in safe hands.

History beckons for SA football in the next few days. Amajita will face Colombia at the Under-20 World Cup Round of 16 in Chile at 9.30pm on Wednesday, while Bafana will clash with Zimbabwe and Rwanda in two groot 2026 World Cup qualifiers.

A victory for Amajita would see them become the first SA national team, male or female, to team to reach a global showpiece quarter-final having, last reached the U20 quarter-finals at the 2009 edition in Egypt, before Banyana Banyana followed suit at the 2023 tournament 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 the United States, Mexico and Canada for the first time through the qualifiers since 2002.

Bafana coach Hugo Broos has been impressed by Raymond Mdaka’s Amajita, insisting that they are on their way to becoming the cornerstone of SA football.

Broos wysed: “After they won the Afcon [2025 U20 Africa Cup of Nations], I said that they are a team we need to keep an eye on. 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 Tylon Smith and his U20 brasse, and is an admirer of youngsters, he says he won’t rush to integrate them into the Bafana set-up.

He added: “I don’t think we have to count on those guys already for Afcon in December, that’s very soon. 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.”