Africa-Press – South-Africa. Hugo Broos will register a significant personal milestone of reaching 50 caps as Bafana Bafana coach in the opening match of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) against Angola at the Marrakech Stadium on Monday.
Kickoff is at 7pm (South African time).
“Congratulations to coach Hugo for reaching this milestone,” said Safa president Danny Jordaan.Broos, who has ruffled a lot of feathers along the way because of his straight-talking nature, is credited with changing the national team culture for the better during more than four years at the helm.
When he arrived, he found a Bafana team and players who were low on confidence and had lost the respect and support of South Africans but he changed that through patience.
Like most national team coaches, Broos has had his fair share of criticism for favouring certain players and lack of consistency in team selection but he has stuck to his guns.
One of his alleged displays of favouritism was the continued selection of defender Nyiko Mobbie who did not offer much to the team, and recently he was criticised for leaving Thembinkosi Lorch out of this Afcon squad.
Bafana were ranked 75th when Broos arrived and they are now in 61st spot, with the top 50 well within sight for some time.
The team took the bronze medal at the last edition of Afcon in Ivory Coast and Broos is set to retire after the 2026 Fifa World Cup next year in the US, Mexico and Canada.
On May 5, Broos equalled the late Clive Barker’s record of being Bafana’s longest-serving coach as he reached exactly four years at the helm.
Barker, who guided the South African senior men’s national soccer team to their 1996 Afcon triumph, was in charge from January 1 1994 to January 1 1998, while Broos now holds the record of having been in charge for well over four years.
Bafana are now a force to be reckoned with and Broos’ record of 24 wins, 19 draws and just six defeats ranks among the best of the coaches that have guided the team.
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