Hugo Broos hails PSL coaches for trust in youngsters

The Belgian mentor has consistently rewarded youngsters with international recognition, handing opportunities to the likes of Relebohile Mofokeng, Mohau Nkonta and Khulumani Ndamane in recent months. 

On Thursday, he extended that list by naming Mamelodi Sundowns defender Malibongwe Khoza in his 23-man squad for the upcoming FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

Broos emphasised that the door remains wide open for players who earn regular game time at club level and perform consistently.

"What certainly is important is that those players are getting chances in their clubs and that was not the case when I came here four years ago. They were all players of 26, 27 and older, you never found somewhere a player of 21, 22 years old and when you talked about it they said yeah but they don't have experience,” Broos said. 

“How can a young player have experience when they don't play and I think I can say maybe it's a little bit because of me that also in the clubs that coaches started to put young players. 

“You see now in every team you find young players and it was as it had to be. They give them a chance and okay if they make it, they make it because they don't have enough quality but if you see all those young players are coming now in the national team. 

“That is because they got the confidence of the coach, the confidence of the club, they gave them chances."

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The coach added that the COSAFA tournament was also an important tool in helping him see these players in a national team set up. 

"Again, if COSAFA will be handled in a more serious way, I doubt it because the clubs have to release their players on a bad moment in preseason but it helped a little bit. There are players now who are coming in the national team who played COSAFA before,” the coach added.