8 July 2022 – Selaelo Rasebotja Rasebotja’s call-up to the Bafana Bafana squad that is to compete at this year’s COSAFA Cup tournament did not come as a surprise to him.
In fact, this is one progression the gifted SuperSport United midfielder has been expecting to come to pass this very year, in his playing career. And that’s because the former SA national Under-20 player had jotted down this goal at the beginning of last season, also setting out practical steps that would help him achieve his mandate on his Vision Board.
“The first practical step I had set out to take was to eat healthy, work extremely hard in training and also do my utmost best in the matches that I would get to feature in at my club to be where I am now,” Rasebotja says to www.www.safa.net. “That goal was achieved as I managed to earn 16 league caps, play in three Nedbank Cup matches and also score my first two goals for my club at a professional level.
“I am a man of faith and I believe everything you want to achieve you have to first see it in your mind having attained it first,” Rasebotja adds. “If you do not have that kind of self belief, then everything won’t fall into place because your energy, work ethic and determination will be affected because you don’t want it that bad enough.”
Bafana Bafana go into this year’s COSAFA Cup tournament as defending champions, having beaten Senegal on penalties in last year’s final. Rasebotja said everybody has been working really hard in training and all of them share the same desire and objective going into this year’s edition. And that is to defend their Southern regional football tournament title.
Bafana Bafana will take on neighbours Mozambique in their first match of the tournament on 13 July at Princess Magogo, after receiving a bye from the group stage matches. That match will kick-off at 17h00.
“Everybody in the team shares the same mindset of going all the way to defend our title in this year’s tournament,” Rasebotja says. “And that’s another goal which I have set out for myself too. My other goals are to first establish myself as an integral part of this squad, play as many games as possible, score and even produce as many assists as possible for my teammates to score.
