Pitso Mosimane Returns as Bafana Bafana Head Coach

Pitso Mosimane is back in charge of South Africa’s men’s national team, a decade after his first spell ended in bruising fashion.

The 62-year-old has been reappointed as Bafana Bafana head coach, replacing Hugo Broos, who stepped down when his contract expired at the end of July after five years in the job.

Broos leaves with credit. The Belgian guided South Africa to a third-place finish at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations and took them into the last 32 of this year’s World Cup, their first appearance at the finals since hosting the tournament in 2010. The team arrives back on the global stage; Mosimane must now decide how to keep them there.

His return was signed off by the South African Football Association’s executive committee on 8 August. The former Mamelodi Sundowns boss was only unveiled to the media in Johannesburg on Tuesday, once his contract details and technical team had been finalised. The length of his deal has not been made public.

This is familiar ground for Mosimane, but not without scars. He previously led Bafana Bafana from July 2010 to June 2012, a tenure remembered as much for a painful miscalculation as for any progress on the pitch.

South Africa failed to qualify for the 2012 Afcon under his watch after mistakenly believing a draw in their final group game against Sierra Leone would be enough to secure a place at the finals. It wasn’t. The error became a defining moment of that cycle.

He parted company with the national team in June 2012 after a 1-1 home draw against Ethiopia in their opening qualifier for the 2014 World Cup, a limp start that cut short his international project.

What followed rebuilt his reputation. Mosimane turned Mamelodi Sundowns into a continental force and then conquered Africa with Al Ahly, winning the African Champions League three times across his club career. His passport filled up too, with recent managerial spells in Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Iran adding to his experience.

Now he walks back into the Bafana Bafana dugout older, decorated, and under no illusions. The team has climbed again under Broos. The question is simple: can Mosimane turn hard-earned lessons and club glory into a sustained era for South Africa on the biggest stage?