Andre Arendse: South Africa needs more players abroad

by Phumzile Ngcatshe

Monday Jun 18, 2018. 15:00

Legendary South African goalkeeper Andre Arendse has shared his views on why the national team has declined in recent years.

The goalkeeper coach, currently contracted to SuperSport United, believes Bafana Bafana have gone backwards due to a lack of development structures in the country.

Bafana, continental champions in 1996, last qualified for a World Cup in 2002, although they participated in the 2010 edition by virtue of being the host nation.

The man who worked with coach Stuart Baxter at the 2018 COSAFA Cup in Polokwane also says it is crucial local players aspire to go to the elite leagues in Europe.

"There is no question within that period the skills, the ability of players we have locally is all there," Arendse was quoted as saying by Kick-Off.com.

"My own thing of why we are not where we should be is because of a lack of development structures. We need to take young players and by the time they turn 19 or 20 they are the ones who should be representing us.

“People like myself should be getting them into that level. Those are the kinds of development structures I'm talking about. We as a nation, as an association and the country, we need to get those structures in place.

"The longer our local players stay in Europe the better chances we have as a country of qualifying for big tournaments.

"I will give an example with Senegal and Nigeria. Senegal, their squad is compiled of complete players playing abroad, so that tells you that the more the players play against the opposition abroad the better the chances of qualifying for the World Cups.”