Bafana end 16-year wait for World Cup qualification as they seal ticket to 2026 tournament

Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos has become just the third coach to qualify South Africa for a FIFA World Cup following success in 2026 qualifying.

Their 3-0 win over Rwanda, coupled with Nigeria’s 4-0 success over Benin secured them top spot in Group C and a first appearance at the global showpiece event since hosting it in 2010.

It's their first qualification for a tournament since the 2002 tournament in South Korea.

"This is really a fantastic evening for everyone," he said on Tuesday night at the Mbombela Stadium following their victory.

"This is not only for the coach, I'm part of it. This is a team who worked for the last three years to have all those performances and nice moments. I can't forget my staff, because they helped me a lot, especially Helman [Mkhalele]. You all know that I like him very much. So without him, we couldn't achieve that.

"But it's not only my staff. It's also the medical staff who work day and night to have the players ready to do big performances, the kit manager, the security manager, the team manager. We are a bunch of people who have only one goal, and that is doing good performances and winning things. And I think this is not work for me alone. I insist also to [highlight] what the players did in the last three years."

Eleven months ago, Broos famously said Bafana would qualify for the tournament that will be co-hosted by America, Mexico and Canada.

Reflecting back on what made him so confident about their chances, the Belgian mentor admitted it was the team's togetherness that pushed him to believe in their ability, despite history saying otherwise.

"I know you [the media] do not always agree with the choices I made, and I said already that I make them on different criteria than you do," he said about his selection choices throughout his tenure.

"For me, it's important to have a player with quality, first of all, a player with the right mentality. Secondly, a player who can do what I ask him, and till now, I always succeed to do it, even if you thought that this one, or that one, also needed a chance. It's not like this that you build a team. It's not like this that you have performances.

"You need a plan, and you need to stick with the plan, because you know that it is the right way. And this is what we did in the last three years.

This is fantastic, not onlyfor us as coach or player but for all the nation. I heard somebody saying on the pitch after the game, everybody laughed at Bafana Bafana, we were a joke. And now we are there [at the World Cup]. We are on a high level, and everybody respects us. And this, again, is not only my work. So at last, I think that this is something that this nation needed, a different way to look at football, a different way to judge players."

Broos now starts the long farewell with the national team, with the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, along with the World Cup, being his final assignments before he retires from football following a 40-year career.

Reflecting back on the team's progress since he took over, the 73-year-old feels like wanting to showcase their skills at international competitions has pushed players to make sure they make an impression when called up to the national team.

"I really hope that in December, at AFCON, we will try to do as well as the last one… hopefully even better," he said of a team that finished third at the 2023 edition.

"But I hope that with all those high-level tournaments, and certainly next year in America, with the World Cup, that players will have the opportunity to go to higher competitions, because they deserve it first of all, and they need it also. And if we can make that step in the future, you will see that South Africa will be getting even better than they are already now.

"So again, don't ask me what my emotions are for the moment. I don't have words for that. I hope that the player who was in the squad should go to America. For me, it's a sentimental reason. You all know that I was already in a World Cup at the end of my career as a player, and now I do it again. I think this is the right moment, next year after the World Cup, to stop my career and to go to my family and enjoy the next 20 years with my grandchildren and my children. But first of all, there is some work to do, or we will try to do it well."