16 March 2023 – South Africa Under-23 men’s national team coach David Notoane has named the final 23-man squad to face Congo (Brazzaville) in two crucial back-to-back CAF U23 Olympic Qualifiers this month.

Notoane’s charges will face the Congolese in the first match at Dobsonville Stadium on Thursday, 23 March 2023 (15h00) and then travel to Brazzaville to play the second leg at Massamba-Debat Stadium on 26/27 March.

The SA Under-23 coach said he was very excited by the quality of the players he has selected to represent the country.

“It’s a very, very exciting squad, and a very competitive squad,” he said on Thursday (16 March 2023) after announcing his team. “This squad is a culmination of the work done from January to March in monitoring a lot of these players at their respective clubs in terms of the performances they’ve been dishing out week in and week out.

“There are those that were getting minutes in between and it has been very exciting to watch them. So congratulations to all the players that have made the final squad. We look forward to the game against Congo. We believe we’ve selected a squad that will meet the demands Congo puts before us in terms of their approach to the game, and their physicality.”

Notoane said the goal is to secure qualification to the 2023 Africa U-23 Cup of Nations in Morocco in June, but they need to first negotiate a way past the Congolese in the next two games.

“I think this group is competitive and talented enough to help us get through this qualification round and qualify for the Under-23 Afcon. To those players who didn’t make it, they also did very, very well and we will continue to monitor them going to June. A lot of them will have an opportunity to stake their claim in the team and of course, different sets of opposition require different sets of players, as is the norm with the national team.

“So yes, we look forward to this round, we look forward to a good first leg where we hope to take a comfortable lead and victory to Congo, where we know we are going to face very, very difficult conditions against a very, very physical and strong team. But we will be up to the challenge, looking at the composition of the squad. We hope that the strategy we put in place will be the one that will help South Africa get the desired victory to go to Afcon 2023 in Morocco.”

No. PLAYER’S NAME                CLUB
 GOALKEEPERS:
  Lincoln VYVER Cape Town Spurs FC (SA)
  Ephraim MOTHIBHEDI All Stars FC (SA)       
  Olwethu MZIMELA Amazulu FC (SA)
DEFENDERS:
  Athenkosi MCABA Stellenbosch FC (SA)
  Bradley CROSS Maritzburg Utd FC (SA)
  Wayne DORTLEY Cape Town Spurs FC (SA)
  Siyanda MSANI Richard’s Bay FC (SA)
  Keagan JOHANNES SuperSport Utd FC (SA)
  Olwethu MAKHANYA Stellenbosch FC (SA)
  Kamogelo MAHLANGU            TS Galaxy FC (SA)
MIDFIELDERS:
  Jayden ADAMS Stellenbosch FC (SA)
  Samkelo ZWANE Kaizer Chiefs FC (SA)
  Christos RETSOS Aris Petroupolis FC (GREECE)
  Ethan BROOKS Amazulu FC (SA)
  Devin TITUS Stellenbosch FC (SA)
  Kgaugelo CHAUKE Exeter City FC (ENGLAND)
FORWARDS:
     
  Ashley CUPIDO Cape Town Spurs FC (SA)
  Boitumelo RADIOPANE Cape Town Spurs FC (SA)
  Antonio Van Wyk Stellenbosch FC (SA)
  Oswin APPOLIS Pretoria Callies FC (SA)
  Mduduzi SHABALALA Kaizer Chiefs FC (SA)
  Thapelo MASEKO SuperSport Utd FC (SA)
  Yanela MBUTHUMA Richard’s Bay FC (SA)