Hugo Broos arrived in South Africa on Monday night, May 10, 2021 to begin his tenure as the head coach of Bafana Bafana. He was appointed by the South African Football Association (SAFA) to replace Molefi Ntseki.
Broos’ arrival was met with a mixture of skepticism and anticipation. He had a formidable task ahead of him – to rebuild a national team and to coach a bunch of no hopers.
Upon arrival, Broos met with SAFA’s technical committee to present his vision for the team. Broos settled for former Bafana Bafana winger Helman Mkhalele for the position of assistant coach. The grey-haired Belgian emphasized his focus on building a young, ambitious team and bringing in players with a strong desire to achieve success. He expressed excitement about the opportunity to coach a team in a nation with a rich football history that had hopelessly lost focus and purpose. South Africa, Broos had said, had all the infrastructure and tools in place.
Broos was born at Humbeek in Belgium in 1952. His father, Dennis Broos, was a policeman. As a child growing up in a small village, Broos said his father’s policeman profession instilled a strong sense of discipline in him from a young age. He attributes his disciplined, no-nonsense coaching approach to his upbringing.
Broos is married to Sonja De Valck and the couple live in Belgium and has three adult children: daughters Elke and Kaat, and a son Dennis. They have eight grandchildren.
Broos is Catholic school educated and said this had contributed to his high level of discipline. While his higher academic achievements are not known, he obtained several professional qualifications related to his football career, including a UEFA PRO LICENCE FOOTBALL COACHING certification.
Broos began his professional football career in 1970 with RSC Anderlecht at the age of 18. As a central defender, he won multiple domestic and European titles with both Anderlecht and Club Brugge.
For more than ten years, he was the central defender for Anderlecht and helped them win European trophies, three national championships and four Belgian Cups. Between 1974 and 1986 he represented Belgium, gaining 24 caps and finishing fourth at the World Cup in Mexico in 1986.
In 1983 Broos switched teams and started playing for Club Brugge. He played there for five seasons until season 1987-1988. During this period, he helped his team win the Belgian Cup in 1986 and the Championship in 1988. In 1988 he retired as a professional footballer.
Broos then embarked on a coaching career, starting off with several Belgium clubs and in other parts of Europe, achieving significant success with many of them. He notably managed two of Belgium’s top clubs, Club Brugge and RSC Anderlecht, winning league titles with both.
Broos has a successful record coaching national teams in Africa, winning the Africa Cup of Nations title with Cameroon in 2017. The Belgian mentor had a tumultuous but ultimately a successful tenure as the head coach of Cameroon, leading an unfancied squad win the Africa Cup of Nations before being controversial fired later that same year for failing to qualify the team for the FIFA World Cup 2018.
He then came to South Africa to famously guide Bafana Bafana to a third-place Afcon bronze finish in 2023 and also qualify the team for the next 2025 Afcon in Morocco as well as the FIFA 2026 World Cup. All of the qualifications were a significant milestone in the rise of Bafana Bafana who last qualified in the World Cup as hosts in 2010 and had missed several Afcon qualifications until the miracle of Afcon 2023 in Ivory Coast that saw Bafana returning with the bronze medal. –
South Africa secured the bronze medal at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) in Ivory Coast. They achieved this by defeating the Democratic Republic of Congo in the third-place play-off match. Bafana Bafana’s journey was marked by dramatic penalty shootouts and key victories.
Goalkeeper Ronwen Williams was a standout performer in this journey to bronze by saving a record four penalties in the quarter final shootout against Cape Verde and two more in the third-place match to seal the win and was awarded the Golden Glove (Best Goalkeeper) of the tournament.
The bronze medal marked Bafana Bafana’s first podium finish in the Afcon in two decades, their best result since winning bronze in 2000. It is important to note that this change of fortune happened soon after the appointment of Belgian coach Hugo Broos. For two decades before Broos’ arrival, Bafana Bafana were the punching bag and laughing stock of other football nations. Bafana’s performance at Afcon 2023 in Ivory Coast represented a dramatic change of fortunes, signaling the team’s emergence under Broos. A new era had dawned, there was new enthusiasm and hope. This was a harbinger of good things to come.
The Great Escape against the Cranes of Uganda, September 6, 2024(2-2)
On September 6, 2024, in a home game against The Cranes of Uganda, Bafana Bafana faced the mortal threat of losing to Uganda when after dominating in the first half and leading by a goal, Uganda scored two quick goals from long range in the 51st and 53rd minutes. Bafana’s goalkeeper, Veli Mothwa, should have comfortably saved the second one but shocked the nation with his tragic mistake that easily let the ball slip through his fingers and rolled into the back of net. The host team appeared to be on the brink of defeat until substitute Thalente Mbatha struck a debut goal five minutes into injury time to save the nation. The game ended 2-2 draw. It was a wake-up call to coach Hugo Broos to up his game and get his boys to deliver or face demise.
Bafana subdue the Bright Stars of Sudan, September 10, 2024(3-2)
In a strange twist of fate, Thalente Mbatha once again struck and scored a last-gasp winner for Bafana Bafana at Juba National Stadium in the civil war embattled country. In this fiercely contested encounter, the spirited Bright Stars seemed to have secured a 2-2 draw but substitute Mbatha robbed them of the opportunity, saving Bafana in the last minutes to snatch the winner.
South Sudan started well and their number 9, Tito Okello earned a spot kick and put the host nation ahead. Bafana Bafana hit back almost immediately with Aubrey Modiba teeing up Oswin Appollis to drive home an angled shot from the left side of the penalty area in the 17th minute. Appollis was not done with them when he stroked home a low shot after a Lyle Foster rebound and Bafana were 2-1 ahead. However, before the hour mark, the hosts levelled matters to create a stalemate that was only broken by the late Mbatha strike scored in the referee’s optional time.
Hugo Broos thanked God for the victory: “We are lucky that the good Lord was with us in those two games. We don’t have enough sharpness in our game because of the players’ lack of competitive games, 80% of my team of the 23 players, only played friendly games because the league didn’t start in South Africa”.
The confident and self-assured Belgian then added: “‘Next weekend the competition begins in South Africa, and in October we will be sharper for the next games. It was my fear for these two games, I saw Uganda and South Sudan, that we scored in the 94th and today in the 95th, by the same guy. Praise the Lord.
