Broos believes European rumours caused Saleng loss of form

Bafana head coach Hugo Broos has speculated that Monnapule Saleng’s loss of form for Orlando Pirates may have been caused by having his head turned by a potential move to Europe.

Saleng scored twice in the Soweto derby for Orlando Pirates against Kaizer Chiefs on Saturday, but before that had struggled with his form at Jose Riveiro’s Buccaneers. At one point last season, Saleng was even part of Broos’ Bafana squad, coming off the bench in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Liberia in March 2023. There were many links that year between Saleng and clubs in Europe.

“Saleng is a good player but I think there was too much publicity that he would go to Europe and he thought ‘it’s done’,”said Broos yesterday.

“When you see Messi and Ronaldo, they play every week, they can’t afford a bad game. This is the mentality you need. I hope Saleng understood what he did before was not the right thing to do.”

Return to form

The Bafana head coach was pleased to see Saleng return to form on Saturday, attending the derby at FNB Stadium.

“He scored twice and played a good game, so we will watch now and see if he goes on, then maybe he can be with Bafana,” said Broos, who enjoyed a thrilling derby that ended 3-2 to the Buccaneers.

“It was a very good derby, last year it was really boring,” said Broos.

“On Saturday we saw two teams, certainly Pirates, who wanted to win the derby, and they (Pirates) deserved to win it because it was a good performance. There has to be more of this in the PSL. I know it is not possible when Cape Town Spurs play Chippa, it is not the same. (But) this is what top teams have to do, to play good football.”