SA's football future shines ahead of key World Cup matches

DESPITE what happens between Wednesday and Tuesday night, the future of South African football, particularly for the senior national team, is in safe hands.

- MIHLALI BALEKA

History beckons for SA football in the next few days. Amajita will face Colombia in the U20 Fifa World Cup Round of 16 in Chile, while Bafana Bafana will clash with Zimbabwe and Rwanda in two crucial Fifa World Cup qualifiers.

A victory for Amajita would make them the first South African national team, male or female, to reach the global showpiece quarterfinal, having last reached the U20 quarterfinal in the 2009 edition in Egypt, before Banyana Banyana followed suit at the 2023 global showpiece in Australia.

And that's not all. Should Bafana beat Zimbabwe in Durban on Friday, and Rwanda in Mbombela next Tuesday convincingly, they could secure their ticket to the global showpiece in North America for the first time through the qualifiers since 2002. They qualified only as hosts in 2010.