Kearyn Baccus mooted for SA call up

Bafana Bafana coach Molefi Ntseki is planning to give in-form Kaizer Chiefs midfielder Kearyn Baccus the opportunity to represent SA.

Baccus, who was born in Durban but grew up in Australia after his parents emigrated, indicated recently that even though his heart is with playing for the Socceroos, he will be open and interested in representing SA if that opportunity arises.

The midfielder, 27, who has been a revelation for Amakhosi since the beginning of the season, qualifies to play for SA because he only represented Australia at junior level.

Speaking during Bafana's visit to the Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital in Parktown yesterday, Ntseki said Baccus was close to receiving his maiden Bafana call-up.

"Last week I was also made aware that a Kaizer Chiefs player (Baccus) also qualifies to play for SA. So, the monitoring and the profiling has already started to see when to bring him in,'' noted Ntseki.

"We should bring him in with that understanding to say . what value is he going to add to the team.

"Everybody who raises up his hand and say I want to play for Bafana, we will do the right thing. Profiling, assessing and then doing the right observation that we needed to do to bring the player over."

The Bafana coach has also set his sight on Thomas Barkhuizen, a right-winger playing for Preston North End in the English Football League Championship. "We are also looking at a player called Thomas Barkhuizen who is playing for Preston North End in England," stated Ntseki.

Barkhuizen, 26, was born in Blackpool, England, but he qualifies to play for Bafana through his grandfather who was born in SA.

Bafana are currently in camp, preparing to tackle Mali on Sunday (3pm).

SportsLIVE PODCAST SPECIAL: "Mark Alexander must step down" over Etzebeth - Claassen

For more episodes, click here.