Bafana’s Broos suggests to SAFA his successor – ‘He thinks like me, he knows football’

Hugo Broos is set to part ways with Bafana Bafana after the 2026 FIFA World Cup to be held in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

The 73-year-old took over from Molefi Ntseki in 2021 and has since been a revelation in South African football. In his time, the national team has qualified for back-to-back Africa Cup of Nations. In the 2023 edition, they finished third and are hoping to make it even better in the forthcoming one to be played in Morocco from late December.

However, the biggest achievement is to help the national team qualify for the prestigious global competition.

The South Africa Football Federation, SAFA, is in the market for the Belgian's successor to continue from where Broos will leave them.

Time for my family now – Broos

“Everyone knows I stop after the World Cup because of my age, not because I don’t like it anymore here,” Broos told the media 

“If I was 10 years younger, you can be sure I would want to stay here for another two years, and it would be seven years. 

“I’m very happy here; I’ll be 74. I read that I’ll be the oldest coach. It’s time to go to my family; they have made sacrifices in the last 30 years to focus on my career, now I must focus on them,” he added.

Who is Broos proposing to take over from him? 

“I think the best thing to do is for Helman [Mkhalele] to become the coach after me, because then you have a follow-up on the same thing,” Broos continued.

“When Helman takes the team, the way of work and the philosophy will be the same, with a little bit more African thing because I’m European. Helman 95% he thinks the same thing as me. It should be very good. The only problem with Helman is that he doesn’t have the qualifications [he has CAF B License].

“Nearly every time when we make the preliminary list, sometimes there is a discussion about who we will take, and Helman had to learn because in the beginning, he was a little bit shy. But I told him you’re not here to say nothing. If you don’t agree with me, please tell me. There are moments that I say I’m the head coach, we take this one, and moments I say ‘you’re right, let’s take this one’. 

“That’s why I love to work with Helman. He’s a very nice guy, very humble, he’s loyal, and he knows football. That’s the most important thing,” Broos concluded.