Jordaan not bothered by Bafana coach Broos’s age

With age comes experience — that was SA Football Association (Safa) president Danny Jordaan’s response to question marks about new Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos’s age of 69.

Broos‚ the Belgian who won the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations as coach of Cameroon‚ was named the new Bafana boss by Safa on Wednesday.

He turned 69 on April 10.

Jordaan‚ when asked about the coach’s advanced years‚ said Brazilian Mario Zagallo was 75 when he served as technical co-ordinator and sat on the bench with coach Carlos Alberto Parreira for the Brazil team that exited in the quarterfinals of the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

“As far as the age of coaches is concerned, [Mario] Zagallo‚ you know how old he was?” Jordaan said.

“[Older] coaches are more experienced and he’s very experienced, if you can get that kind of coach.

“And there are many countries who appoint 70-year-old coaches. He’s not 70.

“We are happy — he is healthy; he is fit; he can run; he can coach; he is fine.

“If he can’t walk any more‚ he’s short of breath‚ then he’s old.”

While Broos may be advanced in years‚ he has said he wants to inject youth as part of rebuilding Bafana in the wake of the national team’s failure to qualify for the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations‚ which cost predecessor Molefi Ntseki his job.

Broos does bring experience to the job. A 1970s and 1980s defender who earned 24 caps for Belgium‚ Broos played for RSC Anderlecht and Club Brugge.

Coaching Club Brugge, he won league titles in 1991/1992 and 1995/1996‚ the Belgian Cup twice and the Belgian Super Cup four times.

He won the 2003/2004 league title with Anderlecht.

From there his teams coached included Trabzonspor in Turkey‚ JS Kabylie and NA Hussein Dey in Algeria and Cameroon from 2016-2017.

Most recently he was sports director‚ then caretaker-manager, of Oostende in Belgium between 2018-2019.