In his final press conference as Bafana Bafana head coach last month, Hugo Broos was asked a direct question that, to his credit, he deftly deflected as confirmation that he was truly moving on.
“What advice would you give to the incoming coach?” Broos’s inquisitor demanded to know, to which the Belgian deftly responded: “I’m not going to comment on that.”
It’s easy to read such a response as a confirmation that someone leaving office is fully letting go and would not want to impose views on their successor. After all, not many can recall whether Broos himself received any counsel from Molefi Ntseki, the man he replaced in 2021.
But Broos has seemingly made an about-turn on his decision not to volunteer an opinion on his replacement. In an interview this week with a Belgian newspaper, Broos is quoted as saying that Pitso Mosimane, the incoming Bafana coach, would take the country “five years back” and intimating that his squad selection would be “influenced by agents”.
These are serious claims to make against someone who’s yet to sign a contract, let alone share his vision for Bafana.
Admittedly, Broos is making his assumption based purely on his five-year experience as Bafana coach. In the interview, he confirms he had to promptly drop calls from player representatives attempting to influence his selection. “If one [agent] called, I would say bluntly, ‘I don’t talk with agents!’” he told Nieuwsblad.
But, curiously, despite his outspokenness, this is the first instance in which Broos mentions that he was approached by the agents in question. We have always debated his squad selection, but we never had the opportunity to directly question him about whether he may have been persuaded to make some of his questionable picks as he oversaw Bafana’s campaigns at two Africa Cup of Nations finals and one World Cup.
Now before Mosimane announces his first squad, Broos has, wittingly or otherwise, implanted the idea that his successor would somehow be influenced. Some who hero-worship the Belgian will take Broos’s word as the gospel truth and will no doubt throw the line “Pitso is taking us five years back,” without having convened a single team camp.
Broos knew exactly what he was doing uttering that nonsense in the interview, in the safety of his own country, where he can’t be probed further. But this is the price the country pays for elevating him to a messianic status when, in reality, his ordinary record doesn’t merit it.
An Afcon bronze from two years ago, coupled with the easiest World Cup qualification in history, when 10 African teams made it where previously just five out of 54 nations on the continent stood a chance, shouldn’t mean he should now be bestowed the Order of Ikhamanga. Broos was hailed for his forthrightness when at Bafana’s helm, but some of it was tinged with nauseating condescension. It must be called out.
He said in the interview that he felt pity for some people who worked for him, who would lose their jobs upon his departure, hence his uncertainty about whether to stay or go. He mentions his driver, assistant coach Helman Mkhalele, and backroom staff as people he felt sorry for.
For a man whose career spanned four decades, this is bizarre. What happened to the backroom staff and driver who took care of him after he left the Cameroon post in 2017? Did he relocate them to his Brussels home?
What Broos must understand is that life has to go on. There was Bafana before him, and there will be Bafana after him. Instead of turning into a bitter soothsayer, I would advise him to stick to “no comment” when asked about Bafana or his successor in future.
