Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos has explained the call-ups of Thabo Moloisane and Ndamulelo Maphangule for this month’s 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
Moloisane and Maphangule are the new faces in the squad, gearing up to face Lesotho at the Peter Mokaba Stadium and Benin in the Ivory Coast in Group C, with the latter a late inclusion for the injured Patrick Maswanganyi.
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The coach explained that he has watched the pair over a period of time at their clubs Stellenbosch and Polokwane City and he feels they deserve to be in the team.
Broos further said that they are likely to not feature immediately but he will observe them in training this week ahead of the game with Likwena. However importantly for the coach, the pair will get a better opportunity in the June international window.
“It’s simple, the performances. When I see him [Moloisane] playing with Stellenbosch, when I see him [Maphangule] playing with Polokwane then you say ‘okay, those guys have talent, those guys deserve to be with the national team’,” Broos said.
“The only problem now is a little bit that you can’t call six young players because you play a World Cup qualification. I don’t have the opportunity to put them immediately in the team because imagine that they don’t play good and you lose the game.
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“So, the fact that they are already with us is already good for them and I‘ll watch them now in training. I will see how they behave in the group. Those are things that are important for me but why you choose someone is because of his performances and that’s why they are here.
“He’s [Thabo] a good defender, he’s [Maphangule] a good midfielder, you see that in the game. But the only thing now that’s for every player is that is he good enough to achieve the level of the national team.
“We can see already a little bit during the trainings and I said that few days ago in June they will get the chance to play because they are friendly games – [if] we lose them, we lose them.
“But then they will really have the chance to play and that for me will be a very good moment to judge them.”
