Football: Can South Africa make an impact at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations with its domestic league players?
by Devesh Jaganath | by Cydias Aujard
The turning of the tide for South Africa under Hugo Broos
Over the last couple of years, the South African national football team has been one of the most improved across all of Africa, now widely considered a genuine contender for the title in Morocco this year, and we will be covering their journey throughout the tournament in our AFCON 2025 predictions.
Since their ‘Golden Generation’ in the late 90s, Bafana Bafana fell off badly. They were unable to get beyond the group stage in three consecutive tournaments between 2004 and 2008, before failing to qualify for the AFCON altogether in 2010 and 2012.
The team paid for their poor succession planning all the way up to AFCON 2021 under Molefi Mtseki, where they failed again to qualify for the continental showpiece, but that was when the South African Football Association (SAFA) brought in Hugo Broos, and things began to change.
After arriving at the helm, Broos tore up Bafana Bafana’s playbook of trying to base selection on big-name players, and instead introduced a culture where young talent, team cohesion, and balance were prioritised, but not at all costs.
One key feature of the Belgian tactician has been his willingness to admit mistakes and change strategies, as seen in his admission of error in overlooking Temba Zwane in the past, and adding youngsters Shandre Campbell and Tylon Smith to his squad for the upcoming tournament.
The advantage Bafana Bafana has over opposition at AFCON 2025
Of the 24 nations that are set to compete at AFCON 2025, most, especially the current front-runners according to the best online betting sites, such as Morocco, Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Senegal, are heavily reliant on foreign-based players.
On paper, South Africa’s squad does not look as imposing as many of their continental counterparts, and this is because their setup is packed with players who play their club football in the Betway Premiership, mainly for Orlando Pirates and Mamelodi Sundowns.
Indeed, while players who ply their trade abroad are a huge asset to teams due to their exposure to overseas football, there is one major downside to bringing them together for major tournaments - minimal time to gel and settle before stepping out into battle.
For AFCON 2025, FIFA made a hugely controversial decision by allowing clubs to retain their African-based players up to December 15. That means that many players who are set to feature at AFCON have only arrived to join their national camps in the past 24 hours, or are still on their way.
Broos, on the other hand, has already had well over a week to begin his preparations, given that his team is made up primarily of locally-based players, who were released to join the training camp well ahead of time, and this could be a massive factor.
Additionally, given that the bulk of the squad are Bucs and Masandawana players, building cohesion is not a huge ask, since they already play together or against each other week in and week out, and are well aware of each other's strengths and weaknesses.
Warm-up match against Ghana vital to preparations
Before travelling to Morocco, South Africa will take on Ghana in Dobsonville on Tuesday night. This fixture will be crucial to the team, as it is their final warm-up match before the continental showpiece, and you can follow the action in real-time via our football livescores.
While all of Bafana Bafana’s players have now arrived at training camp, Broos has already made clear that he will only select those who have been in training for the first week, meaning the likes of Burnley’s Lyle Foster, Yaya Sithole of Tondela, and FCSB’s Siyabonga Ngezana will not feature.
This further emphasises the Belgian's unwavering commitment to maintaining faith in his locally-based players and his expectation that their cohesion is key to success, which is something that will be tested against the Black Stars on Tuesday night.
One final key factor that has largely gone under the radar is that overseas-based players may take a while to settle back into African conditions, something that Bafana Bafana are much less affected by, given that Pirates and Downs both reached the CAF Champions League final four last season and played across the continent during that period.
