Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos has explained his thinking behind omitting in-form FCSB defender Siyabonga Ngezana from the final 23-man squad heading to the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations.
Ngezana, 26, was not part of Broos’ plans during his time at Kaizer Chiefs and the player himself admitted not being consistent enough during his time at Amakhosi.
But an off-season move to Romania Superliga giants FCSB has seemingly taken the towering defender to new heights, which earned him a call to the preliminary 50-man squad for AFCON – which he’s since been overlooked for in the final selection.
“Making a selection, is making choices, and if tomorrow I select Ngezana, there will be a colleague of yours who will ask why is this one out and Ngezana is now with the national team when he was never with the national team [before],” Broos said when asked by iDiski Times about his omission.
“The only thing I want to explain is that you have to make choices and I know there are players who deserve to be in the [squad] but I can only select 23 players and I have to make the [hard] choice.
“You make choices on quality, complementarity, choice of [having cover] for injuries. So this is not putting 23 names on a paper and saying this is [the squad] – we talked about it and I knew from the beginning there should be players not there who deserve to be there.
“But this is the choice you have to make as a coach and I agree with you, Ngezana is doing very well in Romania, I know – but you have to choose, and you can leave Xulu in South Africa, or Mvala.
“But then the question will be why Ngezana and not Mvala or not [Sibisi], it’s always like that – it’s a choice you have to make as a coach and it’s not always because this one is better than [the other], it’s sometimes how they compliment other players, the experience of players, it’s important for a tournament like AFCON.”
Ngezana will now be aiming to break into the team for the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Nigeria and Zimbabwe in June 2024.
