The resurgence of current Bafana Bafana strikers such as Lyle Foster, Zakhele Lepasa, Mihlali Mayambela and even the young Cassius Mailula, among others, could be convincing enough for coach Hugo Broos to close the door on any new striker heading into next year’s Afcon. 

Be that as it may, the physical and mental demands of Afcon cry for a tried and tested striker like the sturdy French-based Lebo Mothiba, who’s the only SA player plying his trade in one of Europe’s top-five leagues. Mothiba boasts 14 Bafana appearances, scoring four in the process. Among Broos’ current strikers, only his vice captain Percy Tau has played more games (36) in a Bafana shirt than Mothiba.

In November last year, when quizzed about the possibility of integrating Mothiba with the current squad, Broos reasoned “for Mothiba it’s simple, he’s been with the team for two weeks and he’s just playing half an hour and 15 minutes or something like that, is that a standard to take a player? I don’t know, I don’t think so.”

Mothiba, who scored his third league goal of the season in Strasbourg’s  4-3 defeat to Monaco at the weekend, has missed only three of his team’s 12 games played since Broos’ comments about him.

As Bafana’s next Afcon qualifier, against Morocco on June 12, is a dead rubber since both nations have already qualified, calling up Mothiba to integrate him with the current squad wouldn’t be a bad idea. The alarming rate at which Bafana squandered easy opportunities when they drew 2-all against the same Liberia at Orlando Stadium two weeks ago also proved that there’s still a need to try out another target man ahead of the finals in January.

Mothiba, who famously teed up Thembinkosi Lorch to score the goal that stunningly eliminated the hosts, Egypt, from the 2019 Afcon finals in the round of 16, was not perfect in his previous Bafana games in as he was blunt at times, albeit, that could be attributed to a number of factors, including the unavailability of a secondary striker to feed off him.

That he has managed to stick it out in France for more than seven years now – even when many of his compatriots constantly bleat about homesickness and come back home after barely three seasons abroad – proves “Mr Tuck-in” as Mothiba is nicknamed, has a strong character, an attribute you need players to have in big tournaments.

With all that being said, Mothiba must continue to play regularly and find the back of the net week in, week out for his club Strasbourg so that his chances of returning to the national team set-up don’t just hinge on his body structure and nostalgia.