Revealed – the five-man Bafana Bafana shortlist

Carlos Queiroz, Herve Renard, Benni McCarthy, Pitso Mosimane and Gavin Hunt – these are the five names that are on a shortlist to become the new head coach of Bafana Bafana.

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The South African Football Association have said that a new coach will be named on Saturday, after a presentation has been made to the Safa National Executive Committee by a the Safa technical committee tasked with deciding on a new coach, following the sacking of Molefi Ntseki.

Ntseki was fired after failing to qualify Bafana for next year’s Africa Cup of Nations finals.

A source has told Phakaaathi that the technical committee had settled on five names that they will present, with Queiroz currently the clear favourite.

“Queiroz, based on what he has done before. And we need someone for the immediate and long term. We need it more for the long term, but people are impatient so we also need someone for the now,” added the source.

Queiroz is definitely interested in the job, and is a free agent, having been sacked by Colombia at the end of December. He may also feel he has unfinished business, having been forced out of the job back in 2002, despite qualifying Bafana for the Fifa World Cup finals.

The 68 year-old remains the last coach to qualify South Africa for a World Cup (the did qualify automatically as hosts in 2010), a sign of how the senior national team has not really moved forward to any great degree in the last 20 years or so.

Renard is a coach who has been linked with the Bafana job on many occasions, and has the best continental pedigree on the list, having won the Africa Cup of Nations with Zambia in 2012, and with the Ivory Coast in 2015.

The Frenchman, however, is currently contracted to Saudi Arabia, and it is likely to cost plenty of money to get him out of his current deal.

McCarthy has put his own hat in the ring for the job, but it will cost money to release him from his contract at AmaZulu, and Safa may feel it is too early in his coaching career to offer him the Bafana job.

Mosimane, meanwhile, is not believed to be interested in taking up the role for a second time, though given his success since he was sacked by Bafana in 2012, with Mamelodi Sundowns and lately Al Ahly, it is not surprising that he remains on the list.

Hunt is also an interesting name for Safa to consider – he is the most successful coach in the Premier Soccer League not to get the job, and may well be willing to leave Kaizer Chiefs, where he has not had a great first season, despite reaching the Caf Champions League quarterfinals.