Bafana Bafana will have a squad full of unattached players at the 2024 African Nations Championships (CHAN 2024) that will be led by coach Molefi Ntseki.
Ntseki named a squad of 25 on Thursday evening with 14 of them without clubs, giving them an opportunity to sell themselves and earn moves ahead of the 2025-26 season.
Among them is former Kaizer Chiefs star Keagan Dolly, who was released by TS Galaxy at the end of last season, Thabiso Katumela, who recently left Mamelodi Sundowns, Philip Ndolondlo, released by Orlando Pirates this month, while Zakhele Lepasa was also listed an unattached player despite featuring for Pirates in the Giants series hours earlier.
However, Lepasa’s situation was later confirmed on Friday morning when Pirates announced his release from the club.
Molefi Ntseki has confidence in CHAN 2024 squad
Other notable players in the squad are Sundowns midfielder Neo Maema and his team-mates Terrence Mashego as well as Ntando Nkozi.
“We just want to take this opportunity to thank the SAFA Technical Committee for giving us the opportunity to lead this team in the CHAN tournament. We have assembled a team that will represent South Africa in the CHAN tournament,” Ntseki said as per SAFA media.
“We are in Group C and the team that we have selected is mostly composed of the players we started this journey with. So, we are looking forward to the tournament and to do our best. We just want to say thanks to the clubs and to the coaches who managed to release players for our CHAN team to have a good squad going into the tournament.”
Who is South Africa facing at the tournament?
Bafana Bafana will play their matches in Kampala, Uganda as they are in a tricky Group C that also has the co-hosts, Niger, Guinea and Algeria.
Ntseki’s team will assemble in Johannesburg for their pre-CHAN camp and will depart for Kampala on August 2 with their first game against Algeria on Friday, August 8 at the Mandela National Stadium in Kampala.
CHAN 2024 is being co-hosted by Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania and will take place from August 2-30.
