South African legend Doctor Khumalo has explained why a local coach would be preferable to a foreigner for Bafana Bafana.
Bafana boss Hugo Broos claims that South Africa lacks talent and that the Premier Soccer League’s standards are poor did not impress Khumalo. As a result, the former Kaizer Chiefs player stated that if the shoes are too big, the Belgian coach should resign.
“Enough is enough now! It is about time that Hugo Broos understood that if the shoes are too big for him, he must just walk,” said Khumalo in his latest Soccer Laduma column.
“For this country to be where it is, it was because of the local coaches – I will tell you that much. Qualifying for the World Cup was thanks to local coaches; reaching the Afcon finals and semi-finals was because of local coaches.
“The first coach to qualify this country for the Olympics was a local coach, the U23, U17, and all the junior national teams did well under local coaches and then you come and disrespect us like that? You disrespect the hard work that was done by these coaches and me, being someone who was in the team that won the 1996 Afcon, I’ve never played in Europe, but I was at the World Cup and that’s all because of local coaches. What made us do so well if we don’t have quality?
Khumalo added: “Why did the local coaches manage to get the best out of their players? About 80% of the squad that played in the ’96 Afcon team were based in the country and they went on to win it. It is a disrespectful individual who behaves this way.
“You lose a game and then you start talking negatively about everyone instead of just looking at yourself. There is a lot of talent in this country and if a local coach was to be given a chance, he’d polish our diamonds and make them better.
“What did the previous coaches do that the current coach can’t do? We can’t afford to sit back and allow these kinds of comments to go unchallenged. I fully understand the frustration of the coaches and players who have already echoed their feelings about the coach’s comments.
“He said all of that because of his own failure and being stubborn. He just doesn’t seem to understand what it took for us to be where we were and he also doesn’t seem to know what to do in order to take us where we want to be. It is unacceptable and it is garbage what the coach said. How are you going.”
