Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos has criticized Orlando Pirates for protecting Mbekezeli Mbokazi when he arrived late in camp last year.
Broos had publicly criticised the young centre-back for missing his flight and arriving late in the Bafana camp ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations after being given two extra days off along with other Pirates players.
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The Belgian had stated that he had received a call from Abdeslam Ouaddou, apologizing on the player’s behalf, while claiming Pirates later tried to switch the narrative.
On Monday, Broos, who had insisted the ‘Bafana DNA’ was not right at the AFCON camp, used the example of Mbokazi to explain that agents and club’s should not always try to protect a player who steps out of line.
“The most important thing for those players is guidance, that’s all. They need someone next to them that looks at their interest and not at the other side,” he explained when asked how to guide young players where they step out of line.
“This is something that I see, not only from – because I always criticize agents, but also clubs – the guidance of those young players is not good because when they become good players the clubs already see money.
“When Mbokazi came one day too late and then I got a message from Pirates saying that he is living in a region where you don’t find transport easily to go to the airport – come one man, are you laughing or what?
“So they protect the player, he made a mistake! Because that was not true. That’s what I mean, in such things you need to be hard. That guy has to know I can’t do that.
“Don’t support him, tell him ‘no guy, you have made the mistake’. This is guidance and this is what young players need. This is something, I always go to my country, they also had to learn it.
“Now you see like for example, one of the biggest teams Brugge, sometimes there is interest and they don’t sell the player, they don’t sell him. They say ‘no, no, it’s not the moment now. You stay with us’.
“One year later they have five or 10 million more. Then you see the guy going to another team and you see that he performs there also and that is guidance. This is something we have to do more here in this country, not always looking at my own interest.
“What’s the interest of that guy? Is it a good moment for him to go now and where is he going? Not only see what can I put in my pocket…
“You know when you’re young, you don’t know better. You think the world is on your feet and hah… You can very quickly go high but you can very quickly go down also – and there you need someone to guide you.
“Someone to say, ‘no, no, no’ and be tough in some moments. Ok, I put Jayden [Adams] out for one year but he did a big mistake that man, he has to know it.
“Again, this is something we have to learn in this country. And it should be very good for young players, because now you see young players and then they drop and never come back.
“It’s not so easy in this country, because some of these guys live in poverty and the next moment they have money – ‘ah, I can buy a car, I can buy…’. Suddenly there are women waiting for you. That’s the world!
“If you’re not guided in that phase, some people lose and you waste talent like that – not only on that but because of that.”
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