Benni McCarthy is ready to lead Bafana Bafana to Qatar

Benni McCarthy (Head Coach) of AmaZulu F.C

Friday Apr 09, 2021. 14:00

Benni McCarthy hasn’t ruled himself out of the race for the vacant Bafana Bafana head coaching position.

South Africa’s all-time leading goalscorer continues to be linked with the Bafana Bafana job.

The South Africa Football Association (Safa) are in the process of looking for a new head coach after sacking Molefi Ntseki at the end of last month following his failure to qualify the team for the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) in Cameroon.

McCarthy, 43, has enjoyed a terrific start to his time at AmaZulu who he’s led up to third on the DStv Premiership standings on the back of an 11-game unbeaten run and the former Cape Town City boss has now revealed his desire to coach his country at the highest level.

“As a former player and a manager now you would want to be in charge of the best teams in the country where you are managing,” McCarthy told BBC Sport as reported by the Citizen.

“If that comes with the responsibility of taking your national team that’s been struggling – it is something that I wouldn’t rule out.

“As much as I love the day-to-day antics about managing players working on a daily basis and improving them my national team is struggling so if there is a chance for me to take the reins and take the South African job I would think about it.

“I would really think hard about it because nothing would make me prouder than to manage my country and qualify us to a World Cup tournament.

“That would be one of the highlights of your managing career, even though it is such a short space of time, but it is something that I am thinking about and would consider if the opportunity comes,” he added.

Bafana Bafana have been drawn in Group G alongside Ghana, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe who all qualified for next year’s Afcon tournament. The qualification process for the 2022 Fifa World Cup in Qatar is set to start in June.

2022 FIFA WORLD CUP QUALIFIERS GROUPS

South Africa haven’t participated at a World Cup tournament since hosting the global showpiece in 2010.