COMMENT
Pitso Mosimane has clarified that he did not dismiss previous backroom members, having assembled an entirely new technical team after Hugo Broos' entire staff departed.
The new coach has been deliberately vague about some aspects of his plans, and that’s fine. What seems clear, however, is that he wants players who will wear their hearts on their sleeves, represent the country with pride and understand that playing for Bafana Bafana is a privilege that must be earned repeatedly.
A son of the soil, Mosimane is a staunch supporter of the national team before he’s the coach. Therefore, there’s nothing he’d love more than seeing the team back at the pinnacle of African football — 30 years after last winning the Africa Cup of Nations on home soil.
He made that admission deep in the bowels of the Orlando Amstel Arena on Friday afternoon ahead of their opening 2027 AFCON qualifier against Guinea on Saturday (kick-off 3pm).
Without a doubt, it’s what the players and the public want too. However, Mosimane has already ruffled feathers, leaving ample room for uncertainty over the immediate plans of the team and all those who worked hard to get it to where it is.
To show that he was ushering in a new era, Mosimane started off by declaring that he will not have a fixed captain. This raised questions over the future of Ronwen Williams, who has been one of the driving forces behind the team’s progress over the past five years, helping instil camaraderie in the dressing room.
Mosimane did not say that Williams would no longer be his captain, but he pointed out that he likes different leaders because of their personalities and qualities, notably stating that Luther Singh, Themba Zwane and Sipho Chaine were also going to be his captains.
Williams would have been forgiven for thinking that his captaincy was under threat or that his starting berth between the sticks was not guaranteed. After all, with the responsibility of the captaincy comes the expectation of leading from the front in every game.
In hindsight, though, that could have been Mosimane’s way of shaking up Williams to ensure he does not rest on his laurels — especially at club level, where he has been breached more easily since the start of the season, despite leading Mamelodi Sundowns to the Fifa African-Asian-Pacific Cup and the top of the standings.
Mosimane has not only sent a coded message to Williams, but to the rest of the playing squad as well. He may seem overly pleased that some of the best players in the country signed for his former club Sundowns during the previous transfer window, but that too was about getting into the players’ heads.
He wants competition to be rife at Sundowns, forcing the best players to dominate their positions week in and week out, while ensuring he gives active, in-form players elsewhere a closer look as well.
The reality is that Mosimane does not want 13 players from the same team unless they are all getting regular game time. As such, his greatest desire is to see players from Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs working hard to raise their hands as well.
Granted, Mosimane is set to give Sundowns more scrutiny based on their dominance on the continent and trajectory in world football, but he knows that the key to success cannot always rest with the same players forever.
Notably, Themba Zwane’s best days with Bafana may be closer to an end than ever. His call-up is based not only on his competitive urge and abilities, but also on his dressing-room influence and ability to guide the youngsters.
Mosimane has stated that he wants to integrate more youngsters into the team, but he knows that process cannot happen overnight. Like any development process, the youngsters are there, but they are not all at the same stage.
That is why Mosimane is making things competitive for everyone, including Williams, who has served the nation with aplomb in recent years. It is not necessarily about pushing established players aside, but about making sure nobody becomes too comfortable.
If Mosimane can create that level of competition while gradually integrating the next generation, Bafana could have something more valuable than a strong starting line-up: a squad where every player knows that performance, commitment and hunger will always matter. | IOL Sport