Pitso Mosimane Returns as Bafana Bafana Head Coach

JOHANNESBURG – The man many in South African football always expected to come back has finally been handed the keys again. Pitso Mosimane is set to return as Bafana Bafana head coach, stepping into the role in the wake of Hugo Broos’ departure.

The South African Football Association (Safa) has approved Mosimane’s appointment, with the decision formally ratified at a Safa National Executive Committee meeting. Those in the room backed him to take charge of a national team that has just rewritten its own history at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

This is not a rescue job. It’s an inheritance.

South Africa have just come off their finest World Cup campaign, reaching the knockout rounds for the first time. The run was lit up by a statement victory over South Korea, a result that shifted perceptions of what this team can be on the global stage. That performance level, that belief, is now the platform Mosimane walks into.

The deal is not yet on the podium for the cameras. Safa has indicated a few administrative details still need to be tied up, with an official announcement expected next week. The direction, though, is clear. The federation has chosen experience, familiarity and a proven organiser for the next chapter.

For Mosimane, this is a return with unfinished business attached. He first stepped into the Bafana hot seat in a caretaker capacity back in 2007, before taking the job full-time from 2010 to 2012. That spell brought its share of scrutiny and scars, but also laid out the tactical discipline and standards that later powered his highly successful club career.

Now he comes back to a very different Bafana: a team that has finally felt the knockout tension of a World Cup, that has beaten a respected Asian heavyweight on the biggest stage, and that will be expected to build rather than merely dream.

The question no longer is whether South Africa can compete. It’s what Mosimane can turn this new-found belief into.