Bafana Bafana’s Afcon squad: Inclusions and omissions

Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos has officially announced his 25-man squad for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon).

And as always, the country reacts to the announcement by questioning the inclusions and omissions of certain players.

Of course, Broos proven to be a stubborn coach who sticks with his decisions no matter the noise from a section of fans.

And that has worked for him as Bafana Bafana have really improved since he took over in May 2021.

DISSECTING BAFANA BAFANA’S AFCON SQUAD

Now, looking at the selected squad, Bafana Bafana are going to Morocco for the Afcon with a mixture of youth and experience.

For instance, Tylon Smith (20) and Shandre Campbell (20) will be on the plane to Morocco as Broos looks to gradually introduce them to the Bafana Bafana setup.

The majority of the squad is the players who had already been in the Bafana Bafana setup, and that gives the country enough hope that the team can do well.

Perhaps the omission of a player of Themba Zwane’s calibre can be questioned given his huge influence on the pitch despite his age.

However, in all honesty, Zwane has not been a regular for Mamelodi Sundowns, and that contributed to his exclusion.

The one player that will feel hard done is none other than Patrick Maswanganyi who at times looked to have cemented his place in Broos’ team but he’s not going to Morocco.

Iqraam Rayners has proven to be a lethal striker at Sundowns but Broos has other plans as he left him out of his Bafana Bafana squad.

Of course, there are players who started the season well, and had hoped to be selected, and they include Brandon Petersen and Puso Dithejane.

However, Broos was clearly not willing to gamble by taking players who still have to understand his philosophy to an important tournament such as the Afcon.

NO KAIZER CHIEFS PLAYER IN THE SQUAD

Kaizer Chiefs fans will certainly feel like Broos hates their team as none of their players were included in the squad.

Broos had included Petersen, Bradley Cross and Mduduzi Shabalala in his preliminary squad, and that created some sort of excitement among the Chiefs fans.

However, they were all left out but perhaps the positive thing in all that is Shabalala being among the three players on standby.

The other two are Rayners and Thabo Moloisane of Stellenbosch FC, but there is hope as Bafana Bafana will be going to the FIFA World Cup in 2026.

Now, it’s all systems go for Bafana Bafana to go and do better than the previous edition where they came back with bronze.