Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos has expressed his happiness at the news that his charges have secured a very competitive international friendly match against France next month. Safa is also finalizing the second country to round up the FIFA international calendar week (21-30 March).
SAFA CEO Tebogo Motlanthe told Sunday World that talks are at an advanced stage with Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) bronze medal winners Burkina Faso and former African champions Zambia. Bafana will use the calendar date where Africa’s 10 remaining countries will be battling it out to get the final five slots that are allocated to the African continent at the Fifa World Cup. SA was bundled out of the competition under controversial circumstances by Ghana after some shoddy refereeing decisions at the Cape Coast in November.
“I am very happy that we will be playing a big friendly international against France. We are also just waiting to hear who will be our second opponents,” said Broos.
“France are the world champions and our players will learn a lot from playing against such a powerful team. They have world-class players such as Kylian Mbappe, Olivier Giroud, N’Golo Kante, Karim Benzema, Antoine Griezmann and Hugo Lloris and it will be great if we can measure ourselves against such high calibre stars. I am sure our young players are excited about this prospect,” Broos explained further.
“It is also an opportunity to advertise our players in front of the world because other African countries have their players in the big leagues in the world. Maybe clubs can see our players against France and have an interest in them. Right now, the big clubs in the world do not know our players. I have heard that the association is also talking to a strong second team to face us, that will be good for our team,” added the 69-year-old Belgian-born trainer.
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