Mdaka urges South Africa U23 players to follow Mbokazi’s Bafana breakthrough

South Africa Under-23 coach Raymond Mdaka has challenged his players to use Mbekezeli Mbokazi’s progress as a guide as they seek to establish themselves at senior international level.

The Under-23 side begin their two-legged AFCON/Olympic Games qualifying tie against Madagascar at Lucas Moripe Stadium on Saturday afternoon, with several of the squad’s most promising young players hoping to catch the attention of Bafana Bafana.

Shandre Campbell, who plays for KV Kortrijk in Belgium, is the most prominent name in the group after being included in the senior national team during the previous international window.

Orlando Pirates players Neo Rapoo, Simphiwe Selepe, Camden Dansin and Mpho Padime are also part of the squad. Kaizer Chiefs midfielder Mfundo Vilakazi and Mamelodi Sundowns pair Kutlwano Letlhaku and Lazola Maku are among the other highly rated players involved.

Mdaka said the priority was to ensure that any player promoted to Bafana Bafana was ready to make a meaningful contribution, rather than simply being selected.

“To Bafana, I don’t want to comment more on that, but obviously, this is what I think, to say they might look good here but if you put them there (at Bafana), instead of him playing, you might find that he has not been playing for so long,” Mdaka told reporters at the team’s training base at the University of Pretoria.

The former Marumo Gallants coach pointed to Mbokazi, who now plays for Chicago Fire in the United States, as an example for the players in his camp.

“So when the time is ready, we will be happy if somebody goes there and makes an impact, like (Mbekezeli) Mbokazi, he went there and made an impact, Shandre (Campbell), he went there and made an impact, so I think we should be mindful about that,” he said.

Mdaka also discussed the shortage of natural goalscorers, saying that regular club football was an important factor in assessing players, including those in South Africa’s junior national teams.

“The biggest challenge that we need to understand all of us is that there are very good players all over but the thing is how do we select, how consistent are they in terms of playing,” he said.

“Being a good player and playing sometimes makes the difference. But we did that and we got it right and it’s not something that we can always say ‘this is how it is going to work’ it will depend on who we have and how we want to play. But at most we will never get out of that position of having a top striker,” Mdaka added.