Bafana Bafana head coach Molefi Ntseki has stressed the need for the country’s senior national team to follow the good examples of the junior sides in the upcoming AFCON and World cup in 2022.
The AFCON was moved to 2022 which is the same year the FIFA world cup is set to be played and with South Africa yet to qualify for both, Nketsi understands how important it is to qualify for both tournaments and also perform really well when the tournaments kicks off.
“In the past six years or so, our national teams have been doing very well,” Ntseki articulated in an exclusive interview with Independent Media.
“Be it men’s national teams or women’s national teams, there’s been notable progress. Everybody will always look at Bafana Bafana. Bafana is the face of South African football in the eyes of the world.
“It is important for us to follow on the success of our junior national teams because they have done well.”
“It is about us now doing well in the Afcon and qualifying for the 2022 edition in Cameroon and not just qualifying but doing well,” said Ntseki.
“We’ve seen the Under-23s qualifying for the Under-23 World Cup (which is the Olympic Games), the Under-20s qualifying for the World Cup, and the Under-17s doing the same. It is only Bafana Bafana that still has to qualify for the senior World Cup and that puts a lot of pressure on us to deliver and qualify for the tournament in Qatar.
“We have to go there and represent our country very well,” he added.
“With the coronavirus having stopped all the football activities, it is a very big setback, but we can’t complain every day about what coronavirus has brought to sports in general.
“We are positive and hopeful that we will see our domestic league restarting and finishing off, and players getting minutes so that we can do a proper profile,” Ntseki said.
