Former Pirates coach agrees with Broos on lack of quality players in SA

Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos caused a massive uproar in local football circles on Tuesday when he complained that his job was made harder by the fact that there are no quality players in South Africa. 

Broos was speaking in a media conference in the aftermath of Bafana’s defeat to Morocco in their opening game of the Caf Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers last weekend. 

“It is now time to face the real problem,” said Broos. “And the real problem in South Africa is that we don’t have high quality players. 

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“We don’t have players like those of our last three opponents: Ghana, France and Morocco. If you look at Ghana, 90% of their players are based in Europe. When it comes to France I don’t even have to explain because their players play for big European teams.

“For Morocco, there was only one player playing from Wydad Casablanca, and that was the goalkeeper… This shows you enough. All those players are playing in big clubs like Fiorentina, Sevilla, PSG and we don’t have those quality players in Europe,” he added.

He was vilified in some circles for mentioning what was obvious before he even started the job. Some said he was failing to give what he promised and now he is clutching at straws and making excuses. 

But the Bafana coach has an unlikely sympathiser in former Orlando Pirates assistant coach Zipho Dlangalala. Speaking on Ukhozi FM on Tuesday evening, Dlangalala pledged his support for Broos’ statements.

“What coach Hugo Broos said, it is nothing new… Coach Benni McCarthy raised the same issue not so long ago,” said Dlangalala. 

“We must be honest, sometimes we need to be honest about certain things to find solutions. One of the biggest challenges in our football is that local coaches are not united. 

“They hardly talk about South African football challenges and help each other to find solutions. Now what Broos said is not new and it is pure facts.”

And while Dlangalala supports Broos on this issue, he feels it is useless for him to raise it as a problem but not come up with any solutions. 

“It is just that he, too, doesn’t have solutions. No coach can solve South African football challenges. The biggest problem is that we don’t love ourselves and we don’t believe in ourselves.  

“Look, even our teams are named after European clubs, as sad it is, there’s nothing wrong with what coach Hugo Broos said, I think people have an issue with who said it.”