Steve Barker reacts to Stellenbosch trio in preliminary AFCON squad

National team mentor Hugo Broos on Thursday added defender Fawaz Basadien, midfielder Jayden Adams, and striker Iqraam Rayners to a team he is set to trim down to 23 players before the tournament in Ivory Coast next month. 

READ: Hugo Broos names preliminary Bafana squad for AFCON

With Stellies in the Carling Knockout Cup final on Saturday at Moses Mabhida Stadium against TS Galaxy, Barker insists his players have earned their call-ups.

"It's obviously nice for us to have the three players that have been [named] in the preliminary squad, in Fawaz, Iqraam, and Jayden, but knowing all three players, they're consistently good performers so I think it's more of an opportunity to make their names," reacted Barker.

"If they are in that preliminary squad, it shows that there's an opportunity to be in the [final] AFCON squad, and I'm sure it's every player's dream to be there."

Bafana face Mali, Tunisia, and Namibia in the group stage of the AFCON, and Barker doesn’t hide the fact he would have liked to see more Stellies players picked by Broos, given the preliminary squad is such a big pool.

"I do believe that they'll go out [in the last few matches] and put their best foot forward, and put in the best performance that they can, and hopefully that may be enough for them to make the final squad," he added.

"But it's good to see – one or two other players that I believe maybe deserve to be in a 55-man squad may be a little disappointed that they're not there.

"But I just keep telling the players, 'You can only just perform the best you can in each and every game, and by doing that you will then get recognition,' and slowly we are getting recognition for that. Hopefully we can get some in the final [AFCON] squad."

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