Nedbank Ke Yona Team chief scout and head coach John Khabonina Zondo longs for the days when South African football will be awash with Bafana Bafana material that will be abundant enough to give the national coach selection headaches.
Interviewed during a training session of the team, Zondo, a former Lamontville Golden Arrows, Bloemfontein Celtic and Classic FC coach, said the country was ‘facing a serious thinning’ of talented players that would give the national coach sleepless nights as to whom to select for his squad.
“What we have now is an embarrassing situation where the national team has been predictable year-in year-out. When it’s time for the coach to make the selection announcement, we all can easily predict who will be in the squad because there is no other material to give him a selection poser besides the usual suspects,” he said.
“We’re facing a serious thinning of talented players capable of giving the coach selection headaches. When last did you hear a coach saying ‘I have selection headaches’ as to which players to select and which ones to leave out. I pray one day that selection poser will come and players will vigorously compete to catch the eye of the coach,” said Zondo, also a former assistant coach for Bafana.
His sentiments were echoed by his henchmen, Doctor Khumalo and Jerry Skhosana, who also expressed concern at the lack of choice when it came to the choosing of Bafana players to represent the country.
“We long for the days when there will be abundant talent enough to form three or so squads, which was the case with Nigeria during its peak in the 1990s,” said Khumalo, a legend of the Class of 1996 winning squad of the African Cup of Nations and a former Kaizer Chiefs midfield stalwart.
Skhosana, better known in football circles as ‘Legs of Thunder’ as a striking kingpin of the Orlando Pirates team of 1995 that made history as the first South African club to lift the Caf Champions League trophy, said the country needed to formulate ‘simple and workable plans to rejuvenate our football’.
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