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South African Under-20 men’s national team coach, Raymond Mdaka, has named the squad that will represent the country at the 2025 FIFA U20 World Cup in Chile this month.
The biennial international youth football tournament will be held in Chile from 27 September to 19 October 2025. Mbekezeli Mbokazi was not considered as part of an agreement between Mdaka and his Bafana Bafana counterpart Hugo Broos. The defender will be part of the Bafana Bafana squad that will play two crucial 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Zimbabwe and Rwanda next month.
Belgium-based Shandre Campbell is another notable absentee after he was denied permission to join the Chile-bound South African U20 squad by his side Club Brugge. Bafana Bafana coach Broos stepped in and tried to negotiate with the Belgians, but the club still refused to accept the call-up letter.
“The South African Under 20 Men’s National Team has once again resumed its programs in preparation for the U20 FIFA World Cup. Having started with a recent camp during the September FIFA calendar, which was from the 1st of September to the 9th, where we were supposed to finalize the team of about 21 players that will be representing the country,” coach Mdaka.
“Yes, it was a very good camp, honestly. A lot of headaches where we had all these players, about 30 players, and then trying to come up with 21. Very, very difficult. But the fact that we’ve been with the players for so long, that’s one thing that helped us to be able to come up with the final list.
“The final list, if you look at it, consists of about 80% of the players who have been through the programs since we started in our preparation, through COSAFA and the U20 AFCON.
“We are happy because these players have even graduated here. They are first team players, most of them. And not only having graduated to the first team, but at the same time, most of them are getting minutes in their first teams, which helps because, you know, with the national team, you only have them sometimes maybe for a week or so.”
The team will assemble in Johannesburg on Friday 19 September and depart for Chile on Wednesday, 24 September 2025. Mdaka’s charges were drawn in Group E and they will face France on 29 September, New Caledonia on October 2 and the United States of America on October 5.
SOURCED FROM SAFA WEBSITE.