Ndlovu out to make his mark

Dino Ndlovu (below) believes playing in the Uefa Champions League finally helped to convince Stuart Baxter to call the striker up to the Bafana Bafana squad.

Ndlovu has not played for South Africa since coming on as a second half substitute in a 5-0 friendly defeat to Brazil at FNB Stadium in March 2014, and initially didn’t seem to be in Baxter’s plans when he took over for a second spell as head coach in May.

The former SuperSport United and MP Black Aces front man scored 15 goals in all competitions 2016/17 season for Azerbaijan side Qarabag, but Baxter openly questioned the standard of play in the Azerbaijan league, and did not call Ndlovu up for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiying win in Nigeria in June or the two 2018 World Cup qualifying defeats to Cape Verde in September.

Now, however, Ndlovu is back in favour, with an out-of-form Tokelo Rantie and Kermit Erasmus cast aside, and he could well feature in Saturday’s key 2018 World Cup qualifier at home to Burkina Faso at FNB Stadium.

It can only have assisted Ndlovu that he featured in a couple of high profile games in September, against Chelsea and Roma in the Champions League, where he was one of Qarabag’s better players.

“For me, I respect the coach’s statement (about Azerbaijan football),” said Ndlovu yesterday at Bafana training.

“But at the end of the day I play football, whether it is in Azerbaijan or Mozambique, I am chasing a round thing. I do think playing in the Champions League helped me a lot, I had a decent conversation on the phone with the coach (Baxter) and he told me how he thought I would fit into the team.

“But it is not only about me, it is about the whole country who support the team, we are in a state in the (Group D) table and need to overturn that this weekend.”

Bafana’s poor performances – they are currently bottom of Group D with one point from three matches – appear to have put off their fans from coming to the game, with only a handful of tickets sold thus far.