Durban City FC veteran Darren Keet has admitted that while he remains prepared for the unexpected, a final Bafana Bafana return before his retirement is a “fairly honest” impossibility.
The veteran shot-stopper announced that he would be officially retiring at the end of the 2025/26 season. He made the revelation after his team’s Nedbank Cup triumph against TS Galaxy last Saturday at the New Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane.
Keet has been in excellent form for the KwaZulu-Natal side this season in the SA elite league following his move from Motsepe Foundation Championship outfit Cape Town City FC.
So far, Keet has featured in 34 games, kept 14 clean sheets, and conceded 31 goals across all competitions.
The 36-year-old, who earned 13 caps for South Africa, last featured for the national team in 2020. But with Bafana Bafana heading to the 2026 FIFA World Cup in June, Keet has made an honest admission that he hasn’t been thinking about the global showpiece.
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“For the last four years, I have said I am always open to joining the national team,” said Keet. “But it hasn’t happened, but to be fairly honest, I don’t expect it to happen. I am always prepared and ready.”
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“We have seen in 2010 where they had three goalkeepers, one had to leave because he was injured. They brought in another one, and he got injured, and eventually they ended up with what was essentially a fifth-choice goalkeeper as a third choice.
“So you never know anything can happen. So I am just going to be prepared, just in case.”
Keet was citing the famous 2010 World Cup selection crisis where Shu-Aib Walters—who, in a twist of irony, was then on the books of Maritzburg United [now Durban City FC]—was handed a surprise call-up.
Walters found himself in the final squad after both Emile Baron and Rowen Fernandez, who were ahead of him in the pecking order, were sidelined by untimely injuries on the eve of the global showpiece.
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