South Africa coach Hugo Broos is unsure about Relibohile Mofokeng’s starting role ahead of their crucial 2026 World Cup qualifying game against Benin on Tuesday.
The Orlando Pirates star made an impressive debut when South Africa cruised to a 2-0 win over Lesotho in the fifth round of the qualifiers last Friday.
Before this game, a chunk of football fanatics in South Africa had questioned the inclusion of the talented attacker in the team for the qualifiers.
However, the 20-year-old attacker responded with a strong performance against Lesotho, winning the heart of numerous fans.
Despite his impressive performance, Hugo Broos remains unsure about Mofokeng’s starting role against Benin.
“I think this game was the right moment for Rele, he played a very good game and this is what we need, when you put a young guy in the team, as a coach, you have to always think they can succeed, If he doesn’t, can you imagine he played a bad game, then everyone would say ‘ya, ya, ya maybe it’s too soon, maybe he’s not so good, blah, blah, blah’. So you have to help the player with that”
“I think I did that with Rele and I did that today with Jayden too, for me, Jayden also played a very good game – but this was also an opponent to do that. You can’t do that against Nigeria, or maybe for the first time, in Benin because those are different games, So I have to watch and see when is the right moment and then sometimes they don’t succeed then either but today you see Rele, he had the confidence from my side and he confirmed it, so I’m very happy with that”
The Bafana Bafana are on top of Group C, accumulating 10 points after five matches into the qualifiers.
South Africa will travel to face Benin in the sixth round of the qualifiers on Tuesday, March 25, 2025.
