South African football legend Benni McCarthy says what makes him proud about the current Bafana Bafana squad is that it is largely made up of locally based players rather than those playing abroad.
Bafana are in Morocco as they are set to compete at AFCON, and they recently qualified for the 2026 FIFA World Cup to be held in USA, Mexico and Canada.
McCarthy was part of the last South African team to qualify in 2002, and he says he is pleased that Hugo Broos’ side can now compete against players that ply their trade in Europe’s top leagues.
He believes this reflects the significant growth of the South African domestic league.
“The thing that I’m most proud of is that they are one country that has a complete national team built up from local players that play in South Africa,” McCarthy told Sporty TV.
“That shows that the South African league has progressed so much that the league is competitive, it’s good and it’s strong.
“Almost all the players play in South Africa. When they go to the international level, they are able to then raise their game and compete against the international teams. And that is inspiring.”
McCarthy says their team was different, as most of the players were based abroad, with himself playing for La Liga side Celta Vigo when they qualified for World Cup.
“Our team, almost all our players were coming from abroad,” he added.
“Everyone was playing for teams in Europe. I was playing for Celta Vigo in Spain, we had Quinton Fortune, Shaun Bartlett, Mark Fish, Lucas Radebe, Aaron Mokoena, Sibusiso Zuma and Siyabonga Nomvethe.
“So, all our players were all playing in Italy, England, Spain, Germany and Turkey. They were playing for big teams. But now, all of our players are based in South Africa.
“We have about three or four players that come from abroad. It’s a domestic national team but very well-groomed team.”
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