With Bafana Bafana having qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) finals, every player would want to be part of the biggest football event on the continent which takes place in Ivory Coast from January 2024.
One such player who fancies his chances of being part of AFCON, despite being ignored in the most recent South Africa squad, is Kaizer Chiefs defender Given Msimango.
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Instead of being affected by Hugo Broos' comments on the standard of Amakhosi players, Msimango wants to prove himself and win his way back into contention.
"Yeah, people must understand that everyone is entitled to their own observations and what they feel about footballers and clubs or whatever the case may be," Msimango told the media when referring to Broos' opinion.
"My job is to respect these opinions and if you understand who you are as an individual then you hold yourself to high standards and understand yourself and understand where you are is where you are supposed to be," said Msimango.
"It's where you gonna strive. So, for me it's to understand his (Broos') observations and opinions and continue doing what I am doing and improve like I am in every training session showing up and doing my best.
"I think we have five months until AFCON if am not mistaken, your performances will put you in the team. No favours will be done I believe. You can not fool the South African population," said Msimango.
"They are huge lovers of the game. They understand the game. Your performances will definitely put you in the team come January. So that's what I am focusing on and that's what my goals are," Msimango told journalists.
Meanwhile, Msimango added that Amakhosi's recent improved performances in defence is because of the quality of leadership they have amongst all their defenders.
"You know we have players who captain their national teams. Players who are leaders like TT (Dithlokwe), Edmilson (Dove) and we have top class defenders like Sifiso Hlanti, Reeve Frosler, Zitha Kwinika and all the other defenders.
"Those are quality leaders. We have leadership qualities in the defence at the club and that is helping us a lot as a team. We are slowly gelling as a team. We are slowly understanding each other. We just have to stay united. Stay together as a team. Of course every team goes through a phase like this. The start was not what we expected but as the games went on we started finding our feet and our combination.
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"We started gathering a few clean sheets here and there and scoring a lot of goals so I am happy for the team," Msimango said. The former TS Galaxy defender added that on personal level he is happy with his performances so far this season.
"My job is to keep it clean and level headed. I am happy that my performances are inspiring a lot of people and giving hope to the supporters. I hope that as a player and as a team we are going in the right direction where we will build a huge solid unit where we can defend as a team.
"Defending is not just a defender and goalkeepers job. It is the whole team's work but I talk much about the quality we have in defence because I work very close with those quality leaders," Msimango concluded.
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