New-look SA U23 to assemble for Road to 2028 Olympics

The road to the Games on the football side kicks off in Africa in September, with the qualifiers for the 2027 U23 Africa Cup of Nations tournament.  

The likes of Morocco and Algeria already launched their new U23 men’s national teams last year, but SA’s team will only assemble for the first time in June, as SAFA technical director Molefi Ntseki outlines their programme.

"The U23 programme is out, we are to play two qualifiers in September and October this year, but something very interesting is they are running the same time as the senior men's window period," said Ntseki.

"So what we have done now, we have already started preparation for the U23s and the good thing about us this time is that our U23 will come from the African champions because the U20 that won the AFCON in Egypt are the same players being promoted.

"So in a way, we've already got a core team of the U23s – the only thing is to reinforce that team with those players who never got a chance to play in the U20 or those who were not identified to be part of the U20."

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With only two slots for African teams at the next Olympics, Ntseki has revealed that some of the qualifying players who don’t make the Bafana Bafana World Cup squad will also be part of the upcoming camp. 

"The cut off age for U20 now is 2007, and the U23 will be 2005, so those who did not make it to U20 because they were a bit older, they have a chance to now be recruited and be part of U23," he added.

"Another good thing is that some of our U23 players are already with Bafana Bafana so they are going to get whatever international exposure, and when they come to U23 they will be reinforcement of our U20 team progressing to U23."