Yay to Baxter’s promise of a swing to the Bafana youth
Cele, the boy from KwaMashu is a midfield Rolls-Royce
● A mixed bag of emotions is what a squad announcement always elicits.
Yays. Nays. Maybes. Absolute nadas. There’s never universal agreement. That’s understandable. As a people, we are not homogeneous in our thinking.
The reaction to the squad Bafana Bafana coach Stuart Baxter named on Tuesday was no exception.
The coach had promised he would pick a team pregnant with youth with his eye on the future. It is nothing we’ve not heard before.
Yes to the injection of youth. Yes to giving them a crack at international level.
Did Stuart Baxter stay true to his word of yearning for youth?
Nine yays Teboho Mokoena, 20, Reeve Frosler, 20, Siphesihle Ndlovu, 21, Phakamani Mahlambi, 21, Ryan Moon, 21, Aubrey Modiba 22, Lebo Mothiba, 22, Percy Tau, 23, and Motjeka Madisha, 23.
Mokoena and his SuperSport United teammate Modiba are on an impressive upward trajectory.
The duo more than proved their potential with an immense contribution during United’s Confederation of African Football Confed Cup campaign.
The younger ones are much stronger, wiser and have thicker skins thanks to the trials and tribulations from their travels on the continent, a tournament they lost in the final to TP Mazembe.
Their crosstown brothers of Madisha and Tau of Mamelodi Sundowns boast credible continental credentials of their own. Theirs culminated in victory in the Caf Champions League two years ago with the Fifa Club World Cup as the icing on the international experience cake.
Mahlambi is gaining invaluable experience with Al Ahly in the Egyptian Premier League. It is exciting times for the younglings. My excitement was as short lived as Manchester United’s derby high which was rudely wiped away by Sevilla, who eliminated them from the Uefa Champions League.
Shortlived because in keeping with casting an eye on the promising stars of the future of South African football, Baxter could have gone a bit further. Few can argue against having a place in a Bafana midfield for one Thabo Cele.
If Dean Furman is a workhorse in the heart of defence, the boy from KwaMashu is a midfield Rolls-Royce.
His passing, short or long-range, is boss, his awareness absolutely awesome, his reading of the game ridiculously remarkable and positional sense perfectly plausible. The same can be said of Luther Singh. This is not a question of singing the praises of the 20-year-old. The boy is horsepower on steroids, blessed with a powerful shot in both feet and forceful running which leaves little room for defenders to rest.
Playing Furman as opposed to roping in a Cele gives radical youth transformation a bloodied nose.
One wonders if Baxter took a turn in Portugal to watch Cele and Singh do their thing for Real SC (on loan from giants Benfica) and Sporting Braga respectively during his recent European sojourn.
Last season Cele turned out 24 times for Real, contributing to their promotion.
His impact made such an indelible mark on his parent club Benfica, who watch his progress with a hawk’s eye, that they rewarded him with a five-year contract. Singh, deployed as a centreforward or secondary striker, has scored two goals this season. Both came in February against Leixões and Arouca.
The one thing Baxter did was unearth an unknown player with South African ties. Born in Benoni but raised in Switzerland, Joel Untersee, is a 24-year-old player who is on the books of Juventus but is on loan at Empoli.
Many a Bafana coach has been down this road before. Remember Andrew Surman, David Somma, Ricardo Nuno dos Santos Nunes and Lars Veldwijk?
Won’t blame you if you don’t have much cause to remember.
Time will tell whether Baxter’s boys deliver the kind of football that will envelop us in emotions of elation during the Four Nations tournament against Angola on Thursday and Zambia or Zimbabwe on Sunday.
Twitter: @bbkunplugged99