Notoane Names SA U23 Squad

South Africa U23 coach David Notoane has named a provisional 29-man squad for the upcoming 2023 U23 Africa Cup of National qualifiers.

The youngsters will be in action on 20 and 27 October, when they will face Togo in a two-legged tie in the second qualification round.

While South Africa had a BYE in the first round, Togo beat Mauritania 2-1. The two qualifiers fall outside of the FIFA calendar, making it harder for Notoane and his technical team to select the strongest squad available.

“The squad we selected is a continuation of the camp [held at the South African Football Association’s National Technical Centre in the south of Johannesburg] we had previously in preparation for this official qualifying Round Two match against Togo,” Notoane told SAFA.

“So now you see players like Thapelo Maseko and Keagan Johannes coming into contention, hoping that, of course, with the match being outside of the FIFA calendar, we will receive support from the clubs.

“One understands that the programme is going to be intense for a lot of the clubs after the FIFA week, and the demand for bigger squads will be there. But we are mitigating and negotiating with the various clubs to see how we can meet each other halfway to make sure that we have got the strongest final selection to represent South Africa, and help our cause to qualify for a third successive AFCON tournament, and also push to qualify for a third successive Olympic Games.”

There is still a third qualifying round for the U23 AFCON, from where the top three nations will qualify for the 2024 Olympics.

Notoane’s squad includes 17 players from DStv Premiership teams, with the rest made up from Motsepe Foundation Championship teams and you can see it in full below: