The South African Football Association is expected to unveil Belgian Hugo Broos as the new Bafana Bafana coach on Wednesday. This will go against the popular belief that AmaZulu FC coach Benni Mcarthy is the right man for the job.
For almost a month, SAFA has been trying to appoint Molefi Ntseki’s replacement since his contract was terminated on the 31st of March. The 69-year-old Broos was the only foreigner out of the five short-listed candidates.
SABC Sport football analyst Phumuzho Manenzhe says a local coach is still the best option.
“We only have one trophy as Bafana Bafana and that trophy was won by a South African Clive Barker. What success are you talking about if you talking about foreign coaches, maybe you might say Clive Barker qualified us for our first-ever World Cup. Clive Barker won the Afcon for South Africa. Which other coach won a cup for South Africa. There is one foreign coach who qualified us for the World Cup yes. If you looking at that and say it’s a success I will agree with you, but if you looking at success in terms of silverware and trophies in the trophy cabinet I would say Clive Barker is a South African and he did it.”
But with Broos likely to take over, Manenzhe believes the only trait that foreign coaches bring to the national team, is discipline. Manenzhe says foreign coaches quickly become unpopular for trying to change the effective South African style of play.
“The foreign coaches that come to the country come with strict discipline and they instill a lot of discipline into our players maybe that’s one of the advantages you would say. But the disadvantage is that they are bringing a philosophy that we as South Africans don’t know about. How long does it take to adjust to that? Do we even have a playing culture, do we have a playing style, do we have a game model as South Africa and if we do – why are we bringing someone from outside?”
