Stellenbosch FC head coach Steve Barker believes that players like Deano Van Rooyen, Fawaz Basadien and Sage Stephens deserve a call-up to Bafana Bafana.
Stellies won their second successive derby in a space of 10 days on Friday, beating Cape Town City 1-0 to end their rivals’ six-match winning streak, just days after defeating Cape Town Spurs 3-0.
With Deano Van Rooyen and Fawaz Basadien continuously producing stellar performances for the Carling Knockout Cup finalists, Barker believes that in particular his captain should be getting a look from Bafana coach Hugo Broos ahead of the African Cup Of Nations.
“Yeah, he [Van Rooyen] does. I believe, he showed consistency over a number of years now,” Barker told iDiski Times.
“His caps that he’s getting week in and week out, the maturity that he shows, the energy that he shows, he’s the type of player that if the coach needs somebody with energy to sort of get in behind and cause teams problems.
“I believe that he will do a job, maybe they feel maybe the size is maybe for sort of African type of football and that maybe that’s the reason. But besides that, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be getting at least a looking. And so I’m sure that can’t be far away.
“The same can be said for a couple of players, I think Basadien he also deserves the opportunity and one or two others.
“So hopefully Jayden [Adams] can keep his position for AFCON and maybe with a bit of luck, we can have another addition to the squad, even a player like Sage Stephens has been showing remarkable form and also may deserve an opportunity amongst many others.”
