Veteran Keet wants another crack at Bafana

Cape Town City goalkeeper Darren Keet, 34, is mystified by his Bafana Bafana exclusion in recent years, believing his experience can still aid the national team.

Keet was one of Bafana’s first option keepers under previous coaches such as Gordon Igesund, Stuart Baxter and Molefi Ntseki. However, the City shot-stopper has never received a Bafana call-up since incumbent Hugo Broos arrived in May 2021. Keet’s last Bafana game was a 2-1 win over Zambia in a friendly in October 2020.

“I’ve never said I am done with Bafana and I’ll never say that. As long as I can play and perform at a higher level, I’ll always feel like I could be called up,” Keet told Sowetan.

“Honestly, I don’t know the reasons why I’ve never been called-up because I feel like last season I had quite a decent season [where he kept 11 clean sheets from 27 league games, leaking 23 goals]. I am always trying to push for a place, first of all in the XI at my club, and then in the national team.

“I do add a lot of experience in terms of [the fact that] I’ve also been to two Afcons... I’ve been to pretty much most of the Bafana camps since I was 19 years old, so playing for Bafana is something I’ve always worked for.”

Keet, who made his Bafana debut under Igesund in September 2013, doesn’t think his snub has anything to do with his age, contending he’s only two years older than current No.1 Ronwen Williams and the same age as second choice Veli Mothwa.

“I am really not sure why they are not taking me because it can’t be because of my age because I am two years older than Ronwen (in fact he’s three years Williams’ senior) and Veli is also 34 (in fact he’s 32),” Keet, who has 13 Bafana caps, argued.

“Ricardo Goss [who’s Bafana’s current No 3] is also 30 or something like that (Goss is 29). And at the end of the day as keepers, you want the experience... you want the keepers that have been there,” Keet said.