Orlando Pirates coach Abdeslam Ouaddou has praised defender Lebone Seema following his first senior Bafana Bafana call-up.
The 23-year-old is part of the 30-man squad selected by Pitso Mosimane for the upcoming AFCON qualifiers against Guinea and Eritrea, as well as a friendly against Egypt.
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Seema has impressed since joining the Buccaneers from TS Galaxy last season, although he was overlooked for Bafana selection during Hugo Broos’ tenure.
Ouaddou believes Seema’s mentality and willingness to learn have played a key role in his development, with the defender continuing to improve as a result.
“First of all, I really congratulate him and all the other members of the team who have been called to the national team. I thank as well Pitso to call him,” said Ouaddou.
“It means that he was following his work since last season. He’s the future, he’s the future of South Africa.
“We have such talent in that position in South Africa. I hope this call will give him confidence to continue to work, to grow. But I’m not surprised he’s somebody that has the good mentality, who’s professional and coachable.
“It’s very important for me because in order to improve, you need to be coachable, and you need to be able to understand and to listen. You know, he just started to know me now. Sometimes I can be hard with him and last season I was really, really, really hard with him.
“But for his good, for his performance, we spoke a lot. We worked a lot about the quality of his passes, the alternation of short passes and long passes. So, the duels, but of course, like you said, he has a lot of match of progression.
“I’m really, really happy and our technical staff and the club are very happy about this call. I hope he’s going to continue and to bring us this experience as well from the national team. But again, thanks to Pitso to see his qualities.”
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