Hugo Broos should be handed a new seven-year contract as Bafana Bafana coach, a local football legend has suggested amid the excitement in the country.
The football fraternity has been abuzz since the weekend thanks to Broos for leading Bafana to a third-place finish at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast.
With the excitement levels in Mzansi having gone into overdrive since the team landed this morning with bronze medals, goalkeeping legend Innocent Mayoyo who is also a coach himself, has suggested that the South African Football Association should consider giving the Belgian mentor a long-term contract.
When he was appointed in 2021, Broos signed a five-year contract with the country's football mother body and therefore will be finishing the third year of the deal in May.
The 71-year-old's current deal will take him to 2026, which is the same year that the next World Cup will be taking place in three North American countries: Canada, Mexico and the United States.
The Good
"This Bafana Bafana team has restored the hopes of the nation about our football and it's all thanks to the head coach, Hugo Broos. The only thing that the association can do now is to give Broos a seven-year contract extension. That's if we are serious about progression and for me we should be talking about Vision 2030 and Broos should be at the forefront of that. The coach's age doesn't matter because to me he looks like he is fit to continue until he is 100. What is key about having Broos in our team is his extensive knowledge and experience. This is the coach who has been in professional football for more than 50 years. In his teens, Broos was a professional footballer, and you can imagine the knowledge he has gathered over the years. I am aware that he is 71 but if we get rid of him, what would our hope be. The coach who last won us the AFCON (Clive Barker) is no more. Of all the coaches we have in South Africa, no one has ever won the AFCON but Broos did so with Cameroon (in 2017). Broos is one of the best coaches in the world," said Mayoyo, speaking exclusively to the Siya crew.
The Bad
"If we don't do everything that we can to keep Broos, I wonder what our plan would be. What kind of coach do we want? Don't we need someone who will lead us to win trophies? The only area that I feel we lacked a bit on is the striking department. I'm not saying we were not good but I feel we lacked a little bit of experience to go for the kill. Looking back to the game against Nigeria, I still feel that we should have buried that one if we had proven finishers," he said.
The Ugly
"Football followers in the country have been negative towards the national team and I think that is natural looking at the fact that the team hasn't been doing well for years. Prior to Hugo Broos' time, we had not been convincing and struggling to qualify for tournaments and it was expected that some people would naturally be skeptical," concluded the coach.
Can Broos win Bafana the next AFCON?
