{"id":63127,"date":"2024-03-22T18:40:08","date_gmt":"2024-03-22T18:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/supersport-defender-tyson-hlatshwayo-wants-to-see-young-ime-okon-play-for-bafana"},"modified":"2024-03-22T19:02:30","modified_gmt":"2024-03-22T19:02:30","slug":"supersport-defender-tyson-hlatshwayo-wants-to-see-young-ime-okon-play-for-bafana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/supersport-defender-tyson-hlatshwayo-wants-to-see-young-ime-okon-play-for-bafana","title":{"rendered":"SuperSport defender \u2018Tyson\u2019 Hlatshwayo wants to see young Ime Okon play for Bafana"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>SuperSport United defender Thulani \u201cTyson\u201d Hlatshwayo has joined a growing list of personalities urging South Africa to be decisive and secure the future of highly rated youngster Ime Okon.<\/p>\n<p>Okon, 20, who is one of the breakthrough young stars for United this season together with Shandre Campbell, holds dual citizenship because his father is Nigerian and his mother is South African. He has been named in provisional squads a few times by Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos but is yet to earn a cap despite having made 18 appearances in the DStv Premiership.<\/p>\n<p>The tall central defender has tasted continental football with six appearances in the Confederation Cup, and he could be a good replacement for the likes of Mothobi Mvala, Grant Kekana and Siyanda Xulu. \u201cI have told him he needs to stay in South Africa because it will be difficult for him to crack the Nigeria national team,\u201d said Hlatshwayo.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo be able to crack the Nigerian national team, he needs to play in Europe \u2014 but we need him in Bafana Bafana. When you look at our centre backs, Mothobi Mvala has injuries, there is also Grant Kekana and Siyanda Xulu \u2014 and I read Siyabonga Ngezana had an issue with his travel documents, but I don\u2019t know what is happening there.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHis father is from Nigeria and mother from South Africa. He grew up here, he studied here and coach Gavin Hunt took him from Randburg Football Club. He is South African and he speaks Afrikaans.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hlatshwayo said there is banter among players whenever South Africa plays against Nigeria and he has jokingly threatened not to help him if he supports the Super Eagles against Bafana. \u201cEvery time there is Afcon, when Nigeria is playing he is with Nigeria and when South Africa is playing against Nigeria we have a lot of banter in the team. I told him I am going to stop helping him if he chose to play for Nigeria because there are things in his game that need to be polished.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe more he plays, the more experience he is going to get and he will do well. I don&#8217;t know if it has something to do with him being young but he is quick and strong and we complement one another very well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\">South-Africa<\/a> Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. SuperSport United defender Thulani \u201cTyson\u201d Hlatshwayo has joined a growing list of personalities urging South Africa to be decisive and secure the future of highly rated youngster Ime Okon. Okon, 20, who is one of the breakthrough young stars for United this season together with Shandre Campbell, holds dual citizenship because his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":63126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[274,315,275],"class_list":["post-63127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>SuperSport defender \u2018Tyson\u2019 Hlatshwayo wants to see young Ime Okon play for Bafana - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"SuperSport United defender Thulani \u201cTyson\u201d Hlatshwayo has joined 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