South Africa Football Association (SAFA) President Dr Danny Jordaan has thanked Hugo Broos for believing in his team that almost won the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast.

Despite having a squad consisting of mostly locally assembled players, Bafana Bafana defied all the odds to reach the semi-finals of the tournament where they lost to Nigeria on penalties.

However, they returned home with bronze medal after defeating DR Congo on penalties in the third-place playoff fixture.

“I want again to thank the coach. We started a long journey, we had many fights with the coach and he is not going to run away from a fight,” said Jordan.

“He runs towards a fight. And you know that he has very strong views and is not afraid to express it. In the end, you could see the team shaping up and the team that played was his creation. I want to thank him for not stepping back, being relentless in pursuit of building the team that he thought would win the AFCON.”

Sports Minister Zizi Kodwa thanked the team for restoring the country’s pride and also gave special mention to the small band of members of the media who travelled to Ivory Coast to support the team.

“I want to once more thank you coach for bringing this moment of hope to the country. We have not had this moment with Bafana Bafana for the longest time,” he said.

“You have brought us hope. You have brought us a game-changer in football. I thank SAFA for their leadership. I hope as we go along we’ll make sure that we create a pipeline to ensure that with this small opportunity, we now have building blocks for a national team.”