Pitso Mosimane expects Bafana Bafana selection to become increasingly difficult

Pitso Mosimane says choosing the Bafana Bafana squad will only become more challenging as an increasing number of players come under consideration.

The coach announced his first South Africa squad on Thursday, naming 30 players for the opening stages of their 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign.

South Africa will host Guinea next week before travelling to face Eritrea. Kenya are also in the group, while South Africa will play a friendly against Egypt after the two qualifiers.

Mosimane said his initial selection had been shaped by injuries and marked the beginning of a new direction following the end of the Hugo Broos era.

“We had 35 players before from the preliminary squad and we had all the players that are eligible to play for South Africa but we reduced the 35 to 30 players,” Mosimane said.

“Not an easy thing to do, especially when you have to trace and check and follow all the players because I know you do your homework so we have to do our homework.

“Who we call, who we didn’t call but you must also understand that we can’t call all the players from South Africa, right? So, unfortunately I’m the guy who needs to reduce the size to 30 and it’s part of the job.”

Mosimane said he would have preferred to retain the core of the FIFA World Cup team while introducing new players gradually, but stressed that qualification for the Africa Cup of Nations remained the priority.

“Guinea first at home, very important, we need to win the home game. I think everybody knows that,” he said.

“Eritrea then Egypt so three games, last friendly game in Egypt, two qualifiers, very important everybody understands they are key.”

South Africa’s meeting with Egypt will give Mosimane the chance to assess his squad against strong opposition before the qualifying campaign develops further.

“To get Egypt as a friendly game is a big one also, we decided we need to go with the big guns because we believe we are in the same league,” he added.

“So, let’s go with the big guns, let’s see these other players that have joined us.”

Several players are in line to make their senior international debuts, while others have previously represented South Africa at junior level.

Mosimane said injuries had made it impossible to preserve the entire established group, with about five members of the FIFA World Cup team unavailable.

“Some will be making their debut, some have played for junior national teams but as I said earlier that we try our best to keep the main team but you know we had a lot of injuries,” he said.

“We had about five players out from the World Cup team.”