Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos reaffirming his commitment to the squad was ‘huge’ for the dressing room, according to Tapelo Xoki.
Broos has been linked with an exit from Bafana since leading them to a bronze medal finish at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations.
Club Brugge and Tunisia have been constantly murmured as the next destination but Broos has publically, to the media, and now to the squad stated he’s committed to his contract, which runs until after the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
“It was huge for the dressing room to make sure that we stay stable, you saw the reactions from the guys, I think this group has been together for some time and you can see the bond,” Xoki said about Broos confirming he’s not leaving for Tunisia.
“It makes it easier for some of us who are new into the squad, to gel into the squad, because there’s a lot of brotherhood, there’s a lot of unity and a lot of selfless players.
“Once you have a coach who also leads that, it’s important that he clears up everything. Which he did in the dressing, now we’re only looking forward to the [2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers in June.”
The Orlando Pirates defender, who made his senior national team debut in the FIFA Series that just passed, stated it didn’t affect the preparations of the games against Andorra and Algeria and they’ve never been in doubt about Broos’ immediate future – despite reports suggesting it would have been his last game against Algeria on Tuesday.
“Not really [it wasn’t destabalising] because some of us didn’t really catch the wind of it but just for him to clear it up was a great thing for the team because there was some news in the camp from those who saw it on social media,” he added.
“But it never really destabilised anything in the camp because he’s also reassured us of his commitment to this squad.”
