The call-up of Mduduzi Shabalala to Bafana Bafana has reignited hopes of Kaizer Chiefs players making a comeback to the national team, with coach Hugo Broos seemingly changing his stance on Amakhosi players.
South Africa will continue with their 2026 World Cup qualification campaign with two crucial clashes ahead. They will first face Lesotho on Friday, 5 September and then welcome Nigeria at the same venue on Tuesday, 9 September.
Broos was full of praise for Amakhosi following a good start to their 2025/26 season, winning four games, playing one draw, while keeping clean sheets in all five matches.
The national team mentor had earlier said he would not include Chiefs players in his squad as he felt they were underwhelming. They finished ninth last season with 32 points, having secured eight victories in 30 league matches.
“For me, for the moment I can’t select players of Kaizer Chiefs, and I hope that they make a better season next year,” Broos told journalists during the squad announcement that was set to take on Tanzania and Mozambique in June.
Despite ending the ten-year-long trophy drought by clinching the Nedbank Cup, the Belgian tactician was still not convinced that they were worthy of being part of his set-up.
“Ok, they’ve won the Cup, but I think that was the only highlight in Chiefs’ season. All the rest was not so good. The supporters are very happy because they won the Cup, but we have to be honest, and I don’t have anything against Chiefs, but I have to be honest in my choices.
“And most of the time it was not good with Chiefs. Otherwise, a team like Chiefs is not number nine in the log, they are number three, number two or number one,” the coach added.
Shabalala and several Chiefs players were part of the Bafana squad that reached the final of the recently concluded Cosafa Cup, led by coach Vela Khumalo.
Brandon Petersen has made history by keeping five clean sheets in five successive games for the Glamour Boys and has been praised by Broos, who also advised him to keep up this level of performance.
“There was a time in the beginning, I was here, we really had to search for a good goalkeeper, there was none. Williams was there, Goss was still in Sundowns, Chaine, nobody knew. Now, we have a choice, we have [Renaldo] Leaner, we have [Darren] Johnson,” said the coach.
“We have now Petersen. When I see the progression of Petersen, compare him with the previous season, he makes a big [jump]. So, we have another good keeper, but I can only select three.
“I know maybe the performances he makes with Kaizer Chiefs, he deserves it also for the moment, but at the moment I can’t put out Goss, or I can’t put out Williams, I can’t even put out Chaine. He has to wait, let’s hope for him that the opportunity comes in future,” said Broos.
Thabiso Monyane, who signed with the Chiefs at the start of the season from Orlando Pirates, has been consistently delivering exceptional performances. He was part of the national team in September 2023 against Namibia in a friendly match. Broos felt it was too early for his inclusion.
“That was a guy who was on our list a year ago, and he played a friendly game, but when you see what happened to him at Pirates, he didn’t play anymore, and now he is back by Kaizer Chiefs, and you see little by little he is coming again to a level we expect from him. Maybe this selection was a little bit too soon.
“I hope that he can confirm in the next weeks what he showed us in the four weeks so far, and then again he can maybe be with us for the qualifiers in October,” He concluded.
Defender Rushwin Dortley is closing in on his return following a long-term injury lay-off, and will face stiff competition in the club and national team as Mbekezeli Mbokazi and Aden McCarthy have been outstanding since the beginning of the season. McCarthy picked up a minor injury and will soon return to action.
With the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco drawing near, players are upping their socks in an effort to be included in Broos’ final squad. The 2023 Afcon bronze medal winners will face Angola in their opening match on 22 December.