The Confederation of African Football (CAF) President Dr. Patrice Motsepe has lauded the success of local players in the 2023 Africa Cup Nations after Bafana Bafana reached the semi-finals of the competition.
South Africa has been one of the major talking points across the continent after reaching the Last-four of the competition with 20 local players out of the 23-man squad assembled by head coach Hugo Broos.
Bafana came a whisker from reaching the final against hosts Ivory Coast had it not been for a late miss before the end of the 90 minutes, which then resulted in extra-time and 4-2 penalty shootout defeat following the 1-1 draw against Nigeria.
“You’ve asked an important question, I think we learn from each other hey. South Africa learns from what happens on the continent, I must say there’s a lot of excellent work that has been done in terms of football development,” he said when asked by iDiski Times about the success of local players at AFCON.
“In many parts of the continent at South Africa as well [that development is improving]. I’m very proud of the progress of the leagues and the good work being done in South Africa, to make the league world-class and some of the other league in Africa doing a good job and world-class.”
Bafana take on DR Congo on Saturday evening at the Stade Félix Houphouët Boigny at 22h00 for the bronze medal clash.
