Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos has explained why he made a u-turn and finally called up Mamelodi Sundowns forward Themba Zwane.
The Belgian tactician has continuously overlooked Zwane and his teammate Andile Jali, despite many in South Africa believing they should be in the squad following their performances for Mamelodi Sundowns over the past two years.
“I said it from the beginning and I’ve said it now and I’ll say it in two years when I’m still here, I’m very sorry but I don’t see why I should select Jali or Zwane,” Broos said in May this year.
However, the 70-year old did include Zwane in his 23-man squad for the upcoming friendly matches against Sierra Leone and Botswana.
Get unlimited, fast 5G home wifi. Delivered to you fast from rain.co.za!
“Only fools don’t change their mind,” he said during the announcement at SABC1.
“I said a lot of things about Zwane and certainly that he was too old. I confirm it, I came here and I tried to have a young team and I tried younger players.
“Every time there was ‘Zwane, Zwane, Zwane’ and I said ‘yes, but he is 32 years old, so this guy will be 35 if we qualify for AFCON’.
“But when I see Zwane play I see a guy that maybe we can need and we can use. He is an intelligent player, he can score and he’s doing great performances with his team.
“So I think, we have to give him a chance, certainly now after Tau is not there, Fagrie Lakay is not there, Hlongwane is not there, Makgopa is not there. So there are four strikers who are not there.”
When asked whether he made the u-turn on Zwane because of public pressure, Broos insisted it didn’t play a role in his selection.
“It’s certainly not based on pressure. If that was the case I would’ve done it six months ago. The pressure was there from the beginning, from the first selection I made in September last year,” he added.
“The questions were there for Zwane and Jali. It’s not because of the pressure but like I said only fools don’t change their mind.”
