Pitso Mosimane has confirmed he is willing to return as Bafana Bafana head coach and says the South African Football Association (Safa) has already held informal talks with him and other candidates about a succession plan to Hugo Broos.
The former South Africa boss, who turns 62 on Sunday, has reversed his public stance from 2019, when he stated he would not work for Safa again after his spell in charge of the national team between 2010 and 2012.
Speaking in Johannesburg on Thursday at the launch of his first book, Pitso Mosiamne, Youth Football: Coaching Manual, at the Sandton Southern Sun, Mosimane said the national body had reached out as it considers life after Broos.
“I don’t know when the contract [for Broos] ends, is it available or not, but I know the federation has spoken to a lot of us about somebody to come in for a succession plan,” he said.
Safa planning for post-Broos era
Broos, 74, has overseen a significant upturn in Bafana Bafana’s fortunes, guiding South Africa to the semi-finals and a bronze medal at the 2024 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) – their best performance at the tournament in 24 years – and qualifying for a first World Cup in 16 years since hosting the event in 2010, and a first World Cup qualification as non-hosts in 24 years since 2002.
He has already indicated he intends to retire from coaching after the World Cup, and his contract is due to expire this month. However, Safa and the Belgian are understood to be considering a short-term extension that would keep him in charge through the qualifiers for, and the finals of, the 2027 Afcon in East Africa, scheduled for June and July next year.
Bafana also reached a new milestone at the World Cup in North America last month, advancing beyond the group phase for the first time. Their campaign ended in the last 32 with a stoppage‐time 1-0 defeat to co-hosts Canada in Los Angeles, in the first edition of the competition expanded by FIFA from 32 to 48 teams.
Mosimane: ‘We can raise the bar’
While acknowledging the recent progress, Mosimane suggested he believes Bafana Bafana can still go further and pointed to South Africa’s history at major tournaments.
“[Safa asked], ‘What do you want, what are you going to do, what’s your plan, how do we take Bafana to a better level?’
“We are always saying we want to leave the jersey at a better place. There’s room for improvement.
“It’s not the first time we qualified for the World Cup. Carlos Queiroz did it. It’s not the first time we [did well in] Afcon. Clive Baker won it.
“So we can maybe talk about going into the next stages of the knockouts; yes, that we can celebrate. But being in the semifinals, quarterfinals [of Afcon], we have done that, let’s be honest.
“So that bar is high, but it has been achieved before. We cannot just say, ‘Oh, it’s a high bar and all that’.”
He also referenced his time at Mamelodi Sundowns – where he won the 2016 CAF Champions League before leaving in 2020 – as an example of how foundations can be built on by successors.
“I left Sundowns [in 2020] with the [2016] Champions League; did they get the second one [after me]? They did. So every level can be reached, can be improved.
“I mean, I left Sundowns, I had won the treble and they have won the league how many times after that?”
Past results used as benchmark
Mosimane stressed that recent victories over some of Africa’s leading nations showed what South Africa are capable of, and argued that expectations should be set accordingly.
“I mean come on, we can do a little bit better, right? Yes. With [Carlos Alberto] Parreira [who Mosimane was assistant to], we never lost to Mexico, right? We were 1-0 up until the 80th minute [in the 1-1 2010 World Cup opening game at FNB Stadium]. So come on, we have played Mexico before.
“So really, it’s not something where you have to say how high the bar is. I mean come on, we have beaten Morocco man, we have beaten Nigeria, we have beaten Ghana. So let’s also be realistic about what has happened.
“We have been in the semifinals before of Afcon. Anything is possible, we can raise the bar, We have to leave the jersey at a better place. [Is it] possible? Yes. Why? Because they’ve been done before.”
Ready for return to club or country
Mosimane, who enjoyed successful spells with SuperSport United, Mamelodi Sundowns and Al Ahly (Cairo), said that with his new youth-focused projects in place, he is now free to consider a return to the touchline.
Mosimane has established the Pitso Mosimane Soccer Schools development initiative and described completing both that project and his coaching manual as a priority before committing to another coaching role.
“This was so important for me that I had to do it and it clears a little bit of space for me to say, do we go back to the dugout, what’s in there, why there?
“Offers are there every time. It’s time now, the preseason, some teams haven’t settled on their coaches. This is the time; they need to look now.
“We can all do it. So no-one is really indispensable or [it’s a case of], ‘What are we going to do [if they leave]?’
“Offers are there every time. It’s time now, the preseason, some teams haven’t settled on their coaches.”
Safa has not yet announced whether Broos will stay on beyond the World Cup, nor has it publicly confirmed any shortlist for a potential successor. Mosimane, however, has now made clear he is open to the Bafana Bafana job should it become available.
