Bafana Bafana captain Ronwen Williams says his team’s ambition at the 2025 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) tournament in Morocco is to go a step further than they did at the last one.
South African were bronze medallists at the last AFCON held in the Ivory Coast where Williams was also voted the Goalkeeper of the Tournament.
The team under Hugo Broos has gone on to perform better after the tournament and have been unbeaten ever since, qualifying for the continental showpiece in Morocco and also the upcoming FIFA World Cup.
They open their 2025 account in group B against Angola on Monday evening, followed by the clash against giants Egypt on Boxing Day and conclude the group stage campaign against Zimbabwe on Monday 29 December.
Addressing a pre-match press conference on Sunday, Williams opened up about Bafana’s targets while also complementing his teammate’s capabilities and the qualities.
“I think obviously we’ve had a wonderful few years, I think we’ve been unbeaten since the previous AFCON,” said Williams.
“We’ve been on a very good run but there are so many factors that go into to winning this tournament. It’s not an easy tournament to win. It’s so hard but we believe that we can go a step further.
“We’ve got the ability, we’ve got the quality, but we need to show up and we need to showcase how far we’ve come as a team.
“But I think the big nations or the favourites, will always be the host nation and you know, it’s obviously for them to lose but we believe that we can go all the way.
“For us, our objective is to go a step further than the previous AFCON, and that is to show growth. Does that mean we go all the way to lift it? That is everyone’s dream, but you need a little bit more, and you need luck along the way as well.
“So we believe that we can give a good account of ourselves and we’ll just go out there and fight, have the same spirit, the same mentality that we’ve had over the last few years which has carried us through and put us on this wonderful path.
“So we’ll just go out there, take it each game, give our all and you know hopefully the football gods will bless South Africa with the AFCON trophy.”