OPINION: Bafana Bafana don’t need Sirino or Ribeiro

Last week I was so upbeat about the future of South African football and the talent that is coming through.

ALSO READ: Broos blasts PSL again for not cooperating with Bafana

Little did I know that a couple of day later, the debate will be about whether South Americans Gaston Sirino and Lucas Ribeiro should be naturalised in order to play for Bafana Bafana. 

Bafana have enough

If they meet the requirements to switch their nationality and coach Hugo Broos selects them, I’d still support the national team but we don’t need them. We have enough to compete against the best in the world and it wouldn’t make sense to overlook our own homegrown youngsters. 

Cape Town City’s rising prospect Emile Witbooi is being assessed by English Premiership giants Chelsea. He’s in the United Kingdom looking to impress their development coaches who have clearly recognised his huge potential. 

Orlando Pirates star Relebohile Mofokeng was recently on trial at another English top-flight club Wolverhampton Wanderers. Scottish powerhouse Glasgow Rangers are also following his progress so we do have the talent.

Bafana talent identification has improved

Our third-placed finish at the Africa Cup of Nations in Cote d’Ivoire earlier this year is testament to this. The biggest problem that has held South African football back is lack of talent identification from an early age but that has improved over the last couple of years. 

I have nothing against Sirino and Ribeiro, who were born in Uruguay and Brazil respectively. They have done well during their time in the PSL. To express this point even further, I believe Ribeiro is good enough to make it into the Brazilian national team if he earns a move to a big European team in the future. 

The argument being advanced that the French national team recruits players that have African origin to play for them doesn’t hold. The majority of the players that are selected to play for Les Bleus have some kind of connection with France. 

It’s either they were born that side to African parents or relocated there from an early age and France is all they know. Importantly, they speak the language and they’re in tune with the culture in that part of the world. In this case, there’s no lineage that makes a case for Sirino and Ribeiro to represent the Rainbow Nation.

AFCON repeat on the cards

South Africa has a unique history and I’d hate for the impression that we need outside help to be perpetuated further. We won the ‘96 AFCON and we can do it again if we nurture our young talent that can easily be integrated into the senior national team.

ALSO READ: Broos explains why he will not pick Sirino for Bafana

With a population over 63 million people in South Africa, there’s an abundance of exceptionally gifted footballers.  I’ve been advocating for years that we need to get our best players playing in some of the biggest clubs in Europe and we’ll reap the rewards of them being exposed to a higher standard of football.