By Michael Madyira
Former South Africa coach Ephraim ‘Shakes’ Mashaba says there is nothing amiss with Kaizer Chiefs not supplying players to the current Bafana Bafana squad.
After Chiefs goalkeeper Brandon Petersen was included in the national team preliminary squad, he was dropped from the final selection, leaving Amakhosi not represented in Hugo Broos’ side.
That sparked fierce debate about the standard of football at Naturena.
But Mashaba who used to have Chiefs goalkeeper Iutumeleng Khune as his Bafana captain is unmoved by the latest situation.
“It should not be a big issue,” Mashaba told Scrolla.Africa.
“There is no criteria saying it is a must that players from big teams must be in the national team.
“Chiefs used to have plus or minus 12 players in the national team and some people were asking, ‘why so many people from Chiefs?’
“Today, Chiefs do not have players in the national team and it’s, ‘why don’t they have players in the national team?’”
The last Chiefs player to turn out for the national team is wideman Kgaogelo Sekgota who was part of the November 2022 camp, while Ashley du Preez featured in international friendlies two months earlier.
Attacker Keagan Dolly was last with Bafana exactly a year ago when they played friendlies against Guinea and France.
After featuring in the Group K opener against Morocco last June, central midfielder Yusuf Maart then joined Chiefs and has since been frozen out of the national team.
Mashaba says before jumping to conclusions about Broos’ selection, the coach’s methods have to be understood first.
“We have to ask about the criteria [used] for a player to be in the national team,” said Mashaba.
“What is the criteria used by the current coach? We must know about the plan of the man in charge.”
Broos is on record stating he overlooked Dolly and Maart because of Chiefs’ struggles for form.
Pictured above: Kaizer Chiefs players Sifiso Hlanti, Yusuf Maart and Keagan Dolly
Image source: Kaizer Chiefs
