Mosimane frontrunner to replace Broos

In the clearest sign that he is a frontrunner to take over as Bafana Bafana’s next head coach, it has emerged that Pitso Mosimane presented his plan to the South African Football Association (Safa) last month.

The Sunday Times can reveal that Mosimane gave the presentation to the football governing body’s technical committee chaired by Jack Maluleka at Safa House. During the session, Mosimane outlined his vision for Bafana in a plan that also includes the junior teams.

The newspaper also has it on good authority that Benni McCarthy and Rulani Mokwena have expressed interest in succeeding Hugo Broos, the Belgian who led Bafana to the knockout stage of the Fifa World Cup for the first time in their history before they were eliminated by Canada in the last 32 on Sunday.

Mosimane “interacted with the football bosses before the team left for the World Cup”, said an insider with intimate knowledge of the development.

“Maluleka was at the presentation. Mosimane outlined his vision for the team and detailed how he envisioned creating capacity and capability to take the team forward. He emphasised the importance of a proper analysis of South African players wherever they are based, as well as a blueprint that will speak to uniformity of the way of play from the senior national team and filter down to the juniors,” the source said.

“He insists that there must be an alignment of all levels and that Safa must make things professional by looking at how big football countries deal with the setup of their national teams.”

I don’t think [Mosimane] has an issue working with [current assistant coach] Helman Mkhalele. After all, they are both products of Safa’s coaches’ development programme

—  Insider

Should he get the nod for what would be his second spell at the Bafana helm, Mosimane, who turns 62 this month, would bring along his trusted team of fitness and conditioning trainer Kabelo Rangoaga and performance and technical analyst Musi Matlaba.

“There’ll still be deliberation about the positions of an assistant coach or two, goalkeeper coach, team manager and length of the contract,” said the insider. “I don’t think [Mosimane] has an issue working with [current assistant coach] Helman Mkhalele. After all, they are both products of Safa’s coaches’ development programme. And Mosimane has worked well with local coaches like Manqoba Mngqithi and Rulani Mokwena at Mamelodi Sundowns.”

Safa must swiftly appoint the next coach as Bafana begin the campaign to qualify for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) in September.

South Africa are in group D with Guinea, Eritrea and Kenya, who will co-host the tournament in East Africa along with Tanzania and Uganda.

Maluleka declined to disclose the names of coaches in the running for the coveted job of replacing Broos, whose five-year contract has run out.

“There are names of people that are still contracted elsewhere,” he said. “If I mention a name, you may create problems and jeopardise the relationship of employee and employer. We’re not sure what will happen after that. We’ve got two other international coaches that have also shown interest, but they are not well known. The rest are locals.”

By Monday we will have a sit-down and chat with Broos. Ideally, he must give us his closing report

—  Jack Maluleka, Safa technical committee chair

Maluleka said Broos will meet the Safa top brass tomorrow to submit a report.

“By Monday we will have a sit-down and chat with Broos. Ideally, he must give us his closing report. He must give us a report so that the new coach must understand that there must be continuity. He must pick up where Broos left off and not start from scratch. One other important thing for the incoming coach is that we must discuss with him his coaching staff.

“When we hired Broos, we agreed on performance indicators. After qualifying for Afcon and the World Cup, we said when he leaves we must have a team [for the future].

“For example, we expected at least two players that won the Afcon under-20 to be part of the team that went to the World Cup, just to be part of the occasion, even though we knew it would be a huge stage for them to be fielded. But that did not happen.”

Hervé Renard, who led Zambia and Ivory Coast to Afcon glory in 2012 and 2015, respectively, is understood to have thrown his name into the hat for the Bafana job. But the Frenchman has since joined Tunisia after the Tunisian Football Federation fired Sabri Lamouchi following a 5-1 drubbing by Sweden in their first match of the World Cup.

Under Renard, Tunisia lost 4-0 to Japan before losing 3-1 to the Netherlands, a result that saw them become the first of the 10 African participants to be eliminated.

Last year, McCarthy signed a two-year contract to coach the Harambee Stars of Kenya. In March, Mokwena signed with Al-Ittihad of Libya on a two-and-a-half-year contract.