Chiefs’ Cele says they’ll keep working hard to impress Broos

Kaizer Chiefs midfielder Thabo Cele says the club’s players are not discouraged by Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos overlooking them for national team selection, insisting they will continue to work hard to persuade him otherwise.

Broos has regularly omitted Chiefs players for national team camps, the most recent of which included friendly matches against Tanzania and Mozambique at Peter Mokaba Stadium.

The Belgian named Chiefs trio Bruce Bvuma, Yusuf Maart and Mduduzi Shabalala in his preliminary squad, but they did not make the cut for the final 23.

With the absence of Mamelodi Sundowns’ players, who are the core of the Bafana Bafana squad, Broos cast his net wide for talent and depth and still there was no space for Chiefs’ players.

Broos said at the time that Amakhosi’s poor season, ending in ninth place in the Premier Soccer League, and lack of form of their players meant on merit he had found it hard to pick them.

“For the moment I can’t select the players of Kaizer Chiefs,” he said. “I hope they produce a better season next year. OK, they won the [Nedbank] cup, but that was the only highlight in the season for Chiefs. All the rest was not good.”

Cele, who joined Amakhosi in the January transfer window, said Chiefs’ players would take this as motivation to do better in future.

“Maybe he [Broos] has a point because we are a big club that has not been winning,” Cele said. 

“In small clubs there are not many expectations and Broos looks at individuals only. We strive to be at the right level. The team has to win something and we just have to continue working hard. Whatever happened in the short time, I’m grateful for the people I work with because everyone at the club is involved and the six months I have been with the club has been a blessing to me.”

The 28-year-old KwaZulu-Natal Academy product made 15 appearances for Chiefs after joining in January, having spent eight-and-a-half seasons in Europe, helping them to lift the Nedbank Cup.

“For me to come back to Chiefs, the mission was to help the club win trophies because we know this is the biggest club in the country, though we’ve not been doing well in winning things. But we know this is a team that must win trophies.

“We are still on that mission and I’m happy we won the trophy after 10 years. It is positive and encourages us to know we can challenge for more things next season.”