South African players making moves to clubs in strong European leagues is part of the answer to improving Bafana Bafana’s competitiveness, national coach Hugo Broos said after their disappointing 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) campaign. Returning on Wednesday to OR Tambo International Airport from Morocco, whereBafana exited in the last 16 with a 2-1 defeat against Cameroonon Sunday, Broos was asked about the need to improve the standard of warm-up friendlies ahead of the 2026 World Cup in June and July. Many pundits have called for the South African Football Association to arrange a better and more varied level of competition in such matches than “Cosafa countries” likeZambia, who Bafana beat 3-1 in a warm-upfor the Afcon.
South Africa alsoedged a local-based Ghana B side 1-0ahead of their departure for the Afcon, where Bafana had been tipped as dark horses after their bronze medal in Ivory Coast in early 2024. Broos, though, said he is not convinced playing strong countries in friendlies will help raise Bafana’s standard much, pointing to the gulf in the standard of clubs players were based at for South Africa’s opponents at the Afcon. Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos says the team was at a disadvantage because some of the teams that were at the AFCON have most of their players playing in European leagues.
He says SA players need to get the opportunity to go to Europe and be challenged more.@Yolulwe_Qoshe…pic.twitter.com/YBRloVTqc6 “When you see all those teams we played, they are teams with players who play in Europe — we don’t have that. And that is a disadvantage for South Africa,” he said. “Even Angola have players based in Europe and I don’t even speak about Cameroon.
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Cameroon are a brand new team because [Fecafoot president Samuel] Eto’o changed everything and when you see where those players are playing — there is a striker playing at [Bayer] Leverkusen, he’s 19 years old. “So this is the opportunity our players need to have because they need to be challenged more. And I said it from the beginning that the level of the PSL [Premiership], compared to the level we face in the last weeks, is [a gap that is] very big.
“And you can only make that gap smaller when you have players who are playing in very difficult conditions [for their clubs]. “So let’s hope the players in the future will have those opportunities to go to Europe and play in those difficult competitions because that would help this team enormously. [WATCH] “Hugo Broos is going nowhere.
How do you blame the coach when players don’t score? Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie says the Bafana Bafana coach will continue with the team to the World Cup in the USA.”#Newzroom405pic.twitter.com/kTjq8MMfAV “It’s not that you play against Argentina once or Ghana once then suddenly your level improves. But yeah, what can we do? We just have to hope they get those opportunities and make that step.”
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