Pitso Mosimane says SAFA sounding out a lot of coaches over Bafana succession

Former Bafana Bafana coach Pitso Mosimane says the South African Football Association (SAFA) has already spoken to “a lot” of coaches about a succession plan for the national team, but insists now is not the moment to discuss whether he wants the job.

Mosimane is widely understood to be among several coaches who have put their names forward to succeed Hugo Broos, whose contract is due to end after the World Cup, when the Bafana Bafana post is expected to become vacant.

Speaking to journalists on Thursday after the launch of his “Youth Football Manual: A Complete Guide To Developing Young Players”, the ex-Mamelodi Sundowns boss confirmed that SAFA had initiated discussions with a number of candidates.

“Well, for the Bafana job, I don’t know when the contract ends, is it available or not. But I know that the Federation has spoken to a lot of us about the succession plan,” Mosimane said.

“What do you want? What are you going to do? What’s your plan? How do we take Bafana to a better level? I always say that it’s important to leave the jersey in a better place. There’s room, right? There’s room for improvement.”

No coach ‘indispensable’

Mosimane used his own career as an example to argue that no coach, at club or international level, should be viewed as irreplaceable.

“I left Mamelodi Sundowns with the Champions League. Did they have the second one? Thank you. They have it, right?” he said, referring to the CAF Champions League titles won by the club before and after his departure.

“So, every stage and every level can be reached, can be improved. It’s not the first time we qualified for World Cup, right? Carlos Queiroz did it, right? It’s not the first time we won the Champions League. So, we can maybe talk about going into the next round of knockouts.”

He added that Bafana Bafana’s past achievements should shape, but not intimidate, current ambitions.

“Yes, that we can celebrate. But the (AFCON) semi-finals, quarterfinals, we’ve done that. Let’s be honest, right? So that bar, it is high, but it has been achieved before. So, we cannot just say, oh, it’s a high bar and all that.”

Raising the bar – but keeping perspective

Mosimane also pointed to the dominance of his former club after his exit as proof that success can be built upon by those who follow.

“I mean, I left Sundowns, I won the treble and they’ve won the league how many times? So really, we can all do it, right? So no one is really, we can say, indispensable or, oh, what are we going to do? Come on, we can do a little bit better, right?” he said.

Drawing comparisons with previous Bafana Bafana eras, Mosimane highlighted results that, in his view, show South Africa are capable of competing with strong opposition on the biggest stages.

“I think with (Carlos Alberto) Parreira we never lost to Mexico, right? And we were one up, right? Until the 80th minute, right? So come on, we played Mexico before, right? So really, it’s not really that much that we can say, wow, how big the bar has been. We’ve beaten Morocco, we’ve beaten Nigeria, we’ve beaten Ghana.”

For Mosimane, that record underlines his belief that South Africa should be aiming to advance beyond previous milestones rather than treating them as unreachable targets.

“So let’s just also be realistic of the truth of what has happened. We can be there, we’ve been in the semifinals. Okay, right? Anything is possible, we can raise the bar, yes, we have to leave the jersey in a better place. (Is it) possible? Yes, why? Because it has been done before,” he told the media.

SAFA have publicly set qualification for the World Cup and progression at major tournaments as key objectives for the next Bafana Bafana coach, though no formal announcement has yet been made on Broos’ successor. Mosimane, while strongly hinting at ongoing conversations, stopped short of declaring any intention to take the role himself, maintaining that the timing is not yet right to speak in detail about the post.