Pitso wants to ‘revolutionise’ SA game by giving youngsters a go at the top level

Returning for a second stint as Bafana Bafana coach, Pitso Mosimane has vowed to “revolutionise” SA football by giving more youngsters a chance, saying he’d go as far as fielding an 18-year-old if they deserved it.

Mosimane’s first game is an Afcon qualifier against Guinea at Orlando Amstel Arena on Saturday (6pm) .

Bafana, who are in Group D of the qualifiers, face Eritrea at Cairo’s Al-Salam Stadium in their second pool match on Wednesday (6pm SA time). Bafana will also play a friendly against Egypt in Cairo on October 4.

“Talent needs to be stacked properly. I want to make a revolution in SA football. Not only in Bafana, but with youth football as well,” Mosimane said.

“For the past two years I’ve been with youth football so much [through his school’s football project]. We need to have an 18-year-old player in Bafana, but he must be playing in the PSL.”

Mosimane said he’d always believed in giving youngsters a chance, like how he selected now-retired winger Daine Klate, one of the country’s most decorated players, for SuperSport United when he was just 17.

“I’ve always used young players ... Daine Klate was 17, Cassius [Mailula] was with me in preseason [at Mamelodi Sundowns] as a 16-year-old. I’ve seen what I have seen and it’s not for me to justify Cassius ... he’s doing it week in and week out,” the Bafana coach said.

But Mosimane insists youngsters must be playing regularly in the premiership for him to give them a chance at Bafana.

“If he [that 18-year-old] is not playing in the PSL, how are we going to justify that he needs to be playing for Bafana? Normally here at home we don’t really play the young players, but it’s important that we have the young players playing.”

With Kenya among the hosts of next year’s Afcon alongside Uganda and Tanzania, Bafana need to top Group D. Kenya, who’ve already qualified as one of the hosts, are Bafana’s other Group D opponent.