Johannes – Our Aspiration Is To Defend The Title

SuperSport United defender Kegan Johannes, who is part of Helman Mkhalele’s Cosafa Cup squad, says South Africa will be looking to defend their title later this month.

The former Ajax Cape Town academy player, who was interviewed in iDiski Times Edition 53,  is no stranger to the national setup and was the youngest member of the U23 squad at the last CAF U23 Championships, where he helped the team qualify for the Olympics. Unfortunately, he missed out on being in the squad for Tokyo.

However, Johannes has been included in Mkhalele’s squad, who will leave for Durban on the 10th of July.

It is a young team of U23 players selected for this tournament, and after a good start to his SuperSport career this past season, Johannes is excited to be part of the Cosafa squad that will look to defend the title in Durban.

“It feels great and quite an honour to be here given the quality of players the coaches have had to select the final Bafana Bafana squad from,” Johannes told SAFA media.

“I have been in the national setup before when we qualified for the Tokyo Olympics games. I take this now as an opportunity to build from that experience and work my way in being in the (pool) of potential Bafana Bafana players moving forward.

“We have a coach who believes in using young players and this group is also brought in with the 2024 Olympic qualifiers in mind.

“This squad is not just for now but the technical team is already thinking and building ahead for the future… which is brilliant in my view.”

“Being the defending champions, we know what is expected of us, our aspiration is to defend our title, starting with our fixture against Mozambique in the quarter-finals.

“Sure we have beaten them in the previous edition but that does not mean that we will be walking into an easy match.

“In fact, they will come with the intention of throwing everything at us. We need to be able to take the punches, and fight to come out victorious in every fixture we will be playing in.”

Click below to read the FREE digital version of the iDiski Times newspaper, with interviews wZith Motau and Noko Matlou, and also Vasili Manousakis, and Jackson Mabokgwane. There is also a special feature on new Kaizer Chiefs signing Kamohelo Mahlatsi, a look at who the new Orlando Pirates coach Jose Riveiro is, plus we have two great columns, transfer rumours and much more!