Despite recent assurances from Orlando Pirates’ Abdeslam Ouaddou that the club would not prevent him from joining the squad, SAFA have revealed why Mbekezeli Mbokazi was not selected for the Amajita squad for the upcoming FIFA Under-20 World Cup.
SAFA’s explanation follows Amajita head coach Raymond Mdaka’s announcement of his squad on Thursday for the 2025 U-20 World Cup, which will take place in Chile from September 27 to October 19.
Mdaka’s troops are scheduled to assemble in Johannesburg on Friday, 19 September, before departing for Chile on Wednesday, 24 September.
Amajita, who are the African champions, have been drawn into Group E and will begin their campaign on September 29 against France, followed by matches against New Caledonia on October 2 and the United States on October 5.
Mdaka and his team will, however, be heading to the global showpiece without two of South Africa’s brightest young talents: Mbokazi and Shandre Campbell.
BROOS AND MDAKA’S AGREEMENT KEEPS MBOKAZI OUT OF AMAJITA SQUAD
According to SAFA, Mbokazi was left out of the SA U-20 team following an agreement between Mdaka and Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos. The decision was made to allow Mbokazi to remain with the senior national team to prepare for two crucial 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Zimbabwe and Rwanda next month.
Meanwhile, Belgium-based Shandre Campbell was also left out after his club, Club Brugge, refused to release him for the tournament, despite negotiations led by Broos.
“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.
AMAJITA COACH MDAKA ON WORLD CUP SQUAD SELECTION: “A LOT OF HEADACHES”
Mdaka has reflected on the difficult process of selecting his final team, highlighting the challenge of narrowing down a talented pool of 30 players to just 21 for the global showpiece.
“Yes, it was a very good camp, honestly,” said Mdaka. “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 programmes since we started in our preparation, through COSAFA and the U-20 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.”
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