Hugo Broos: From nearly quitting Bafana Bafana to AFCON bronze

Speaking to the traveling South African media in Abidjan on Monday, Broos noted how the unfair criticism of the team after their 5-0 drubbing at the hands of then-world champions France and 2-1 defeat to continental big guns Morocco was difficult to take. 

After leading Bafana to a third-place finish at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations – their best run in 24 years, the Belgian says he’s always been driven by the will to achieve something with this team.

"It is possible. I came to South Africa to play AFCON; I came to South Africa to qualify for the World Cup – and we were close, hey? It was this [close]," said Broos.

"Ok, we had to play another game then [in the play-offs], but it was always possible, and that also gave me energy to go on because in certain moments, I think I told you already, after [losing to] France 5-0 and Morocco 2-1, I was thinking about quitting.

"This was too much what people were saying, but ok, I've always been a winner and I wanted to go through [with the job] and really wanted, if were to leave South Africa, I wanted to do so with something."

It was also after those two defeats in 2022, that Broos started to bring players like Themba Zwane into the team as he tweaked things that ultimately bore fruit.

"Suddenly everything fell into the right place, you start winning and you qualify for AFCON, the players start to believe, you win against Morocco in the last group game, and suddenly there's belief that, 'Oh, yeah, maybe we can do something,'" he reflected.

READ: Hugo Broos commits to Bafana amid interest from North Africa