After a slow start to his career in France‚ Bafana Bafana attacking midfielder Keagan Dolly is finally beginning to thrive with Montpellier in Ligue I and he wants to inspire the younger generation in the national team.

The former Mamelodi Sundowns star did not see much action at the beginning of the season but his fortunes changed after the winter break and he has since made 11 appearances in the league‚ three in the Coupe de France and two in the Coupe de la Ligue.

Dolly‚ who is expected to be in the Bafana starting lineup when they take on hosts Zambia in the final of the Four Nations tournament on Saturday‚ said he did not expect things to be easy when he moved to Europe last year.

“When I moved to France‚ I knew I wasn’t going to walk into the team because the language‚ weather and the type of football they play there is different.

“I needed a few months and games to get into the groove of things and once I started getting used to everything things started to change for me‚” he said from Ndola as Bafana prepared for the final against Zambia.

“I did not play as much as I wanted in the first half of the season but when we got back after the December break I started to get opportunities. Every match I played in I gave it my all and I just want to continue to grow in Europe.

“The intensity is higher and it starts with the warmups at training‚ where everyone is serious.

“There is not much space in matches and I had to improve my decision-making because you must decide what you want to do with the ball before you receive it.

“I am also improving in terms of going forward and making runs.”

Dolly said he wants to impart is experience with some of the younger members of the national team.

“I am happy to come back and share my experiences with the likes of Siphesihle Ndlovu and Teboho Mokoena‚ who I know have ambitions of going overseas in future.”

After Bafana beat Angola on penalties on Wednesday‚ Dolly said he was expecting a difficult final against the host nation.

“For us it’s to carry on where we left off in the semifinal against Angola. We are building towards to a new phase and winning this tournament will give us the confidence that we need going into the more important games like the Afcon qualifiers.

“I know the atmosphere in the stadium is going to be good because I played there with Sundowns in the Champions League (in the 2016 semifinals). It is not going to be easy because there will be a huge crowd supporting the host nation.”