South Africa U23 head coach Raymond Mdaka has explained how Shandre Campbell fits into his attacking plans as the highly-rated winger returns to the squad for their Olympic Games qualifiers against Madagascar.
Campbell is back working under Mdaka for the first time since their COSAFA Cup triumph in 2023, having continued his development at club level and recently made an impression with Bafana Bafana.
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The 20-year-old was made available to the U23 squad after featuring for the senior national team during the previous international break, where he provided an assist in their 1-0 victory over Egypt.
Mdaka, who knows Campbell well from their previous work together, believes his versatility, alongside that of other attacking options in the squad, gives South Africa greater flexibility in the final third.
“I have been with Shandre since our COSAFA years, that’s correct, we know him well. What we have done as a technical team; most of our attackers, who can play as wings or 10s, Mfundo [Vilakazi] plays at Chiefs as a winger, we play him 10 at times,” he explained.
“We have Kutlwano [Letlaku] who plays as a winger at Sundowns, sometimes we play him at 10, we then have Shandre, it helps in terms of movements up front – to say at any moment, we can interchange in attack – they can always give us results.”
Campbell’s return provides Mdaka with another exciting attacking option as Amajita’s AFCON-winning coach looks to build a flexible forward line capable of troubling Madagascar and taking South Africa closer to their Olympic qualification ambitions.