{"id":45776,"date":"2026-09-17T17:48:39","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T15:48:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=45776"},"modified":"2026-09-17T17:48:39","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T15:48:39","slug":"mosimane-unveils-his-final-squad-ahead-of-two-afcon-qualifiers","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/mosimane-unveils-his-final-squad-ahead-of-two-afcon-qualifiers\/","title":{"rendered":"Mosimane unveils his final squad ahead of two Afcon qualifiers"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"ltr\"><span style=\"font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">The new Bafana Bafana era under Pitso Mosimane is taking shape, with the coach unveiling his final squad and strengthening his technical team ahead of two crucial Afcon qualifiers.<\/span><\/div>\n<div id=\"ms-outlook-mobile-signature\">\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>Mosimane has brought former Botswana coach Morena Ramoreboli on board as his assistant, as South Africa prepares to launch its 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>Bafana host Guinea at the Orlando Stadium <span dir=\"ltr\">on 26 September<\/span>, before travelling to Cairo to face Eritrea four days later.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>Mosimane has named a 30-man final squad, largely retaining the core of the team that represented South Africa at the 2026 World Cup, as he looks to make a winning start to his second spell in charge.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>\u201cWe had 35 players that we had before from the squad, and these 35 players that we had on preliminary squad were players that obviously come from who from all the all the players who are eligible to play for South Africa (SA). But we have reduced the 35 to 30 players. It\u2019s not an easy thing to do, especially when you have to trace and check and follow all the players. Because I know, you do your homework, so we have to do our homework: who we called, why we called this guy, and who we didn\u2019t call. But you must also understand that we can\u2019t call all the players from SA, right? So, unfortunately, I\u2019m the guy who needs to reduce the size to 30, and it\u2019s part of the job,\u201d explains Mosimane.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">\u2014SABC\u2014<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":44341,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-45776","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Bafana host Guinea at the Orlando Stadium on 26 September.","published_date":"","news_description":"Bafana host Guinea at the Orlando Stadium on 26 September.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/45776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/45776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45778,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/45776\/revisions\/45778"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=45776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}