Former Bafana Bafana captain Thulani Hlatshwayo says there’s more to the national team success than just the Mamelodi Sundowns influence and expressed the importance of Percy Tau.
The 35-year-old who racked up over 50 national team caps last featured four years ago when then head coach Molefi Ntseki’s side failed to qualify for the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, which resulted in the appointment of Hugo Broos therafter.
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Broos came in and initially swept several of the older players out the squad and attempting a rebuild with a more youthful approach, which he slowly tinkered with and found success, as they won bronze at AFCON 2023, and are now on an 18-match unbeaten run.
“There’s a lot of togetherness, the spirit around the team, some say its because there’s a lot of Sundowns players, who have played in Champions League in the starting line-up, has helped our national team,” Hlatshwayo said at the launch of HONOR’s partnership with Bafana this week.
“But besides that, when you look at the same Sundowns players, Ronwen, Tebza, Aubrey, they had experience at Bafana before Sundowns, they bring that leadership in the team, like the previous Bafana, three, four years back, they bring that to the senior team. You can see how they manage the games.”
The SuperSport United defender who played alongside Tau, Williams, Mokoena, Modiba, Ricardo Goss and Thapelo Morena who were part of the most recent squads that beat Lesotho and Benin this international break has expressed how important it is to have the right balance between youth and experience, amidst question marks over 30-year-old forward Percy Tau, who reached his 50-game milestone.
“It’s very important to keep experienced players around the team, look at Ronwen, the caps he has now, you would think he should be over 60 already, and having Percy Tau there? Yes there will be a loss of form, but he’s been there, he’s done it, he’s played in African football,” he explained.
“Having [Percy] there is crucial to have… a lot of players are now starting to approach the 50-cap club, and it’s very important for the [younger] players to be playing with these players, even when we had Khune, myself, Jali, these senior ones were the [youngsters] coming into the team, it’s not surprise to see them approaching 50 caps, having them is very crucial [for the squad].”
