Bafana Bafana boss Molefi Ntseki says he will go to England in the hopes of recruiting Preston North End striker Tom Barkhuizen for the Afcon 2021 qualifiers.
The South Africa coach admits that his current strikers are failing to score, with Ntseki singling out Lebo Mothiba who missed two clear chances in the 1-0 win over Sudan on Sunday.
Barkhuizen has scored five goals and set up four more to help his side to second in the English Championship and the 26-year-old qualifies for Bafana through his grandfather.
And with SA only resuming their Afcon campaign on August 31 next year against Sao Tome and Principe, Ntseki is working ahead to solve Bafana’s goalscoring problems - having scored just one goal in their two matches so far.
TARGET: Preston North End ace Tom Barkhuizen. Picture: John Clifton/Reuters.
Ntseki reveals: “Lebo Mothiba is off form. We have a concern with the strikers so I will use this break to go to England to speak to Tom Barkhuizen his club and his family.
“We are happy with his profiling and we want to see if he can get a SA passport."
IMPACT: Lebogang Phiri is making an impact in the Bafana squad. Picture: Muzi Ntombela BackpagePix.
Lebogang Phiri scored the winner on the day, but Percy Tau, Bradley Grobler, Thulani Serero and Thembinkosi Lorch all failed to score.
And Ntseki placed some blame on Bafana’s hectic travel and short turnaround from Thursday’s 2-0 opening loss to Ghana
ON FORM: Lebo Mothiba is on form but is missing opportunities. Picture : Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePix.
He adds: "The players were complaining about being exhausted from all the travel in the last few days.
“The Ghanaians pushed us off the ball to easily in the game.”