Hugo Broos wants Helman Mkhalele to continue his legacy after 2026 Fifa World Cup

Hugo Broos has put his head on the block and named the person he believes should succeed him as the Bafana Bafana coach after the 2026 Fifa World Cup in North America.

Broos has been the apple of many eyes in South African football over the last few days. He led the team to the global showpiece for the first time since the 2002 edition, having only qualified as hosts in 2010.

The event, which will be co-hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico, will not only mark a full circle for the Belgian, who competed in the 1986 World Cup with his native country in Mexico, but it will also be his last major tournament as a coach, as he’ll call time on his career.

Broos’ career, which includes winning the 2017 AFCON with Cameroon and guiding Bafana to a podium finish in the most recent continental showpiece for the first time in more than two decades, is expected to leave big shoes to fill at Bafana, given his success and the way he has endeared himself to many in recent years.

The 73-year-old, however, knows that life must go on without him. Speaking during a roundtable with journalists invited by Safa’s media team at their headquarters on Thursday, he revealed whom he believes should succeed him.

“The best thing to do is for Helman to become the coach after me,” Broos said. “You’ll then have a fluid succession plan. When he takes over the team, the way of working and philosophy will stay the same.

“There’ll be a lot of African ways because I am a European. But Helman thinks about a lot of things, almost 95%, like me. That’s why I am so happy with him. It should be very good.”

Broos, however, has revealed what he thinks could be the stumbling block in the succession plan after the global showpiece in North America.

“The only problem with Helman is that he doesn’t have the qualifications,” said Broos of Mkhalele, who recently enrolled for his CAF A coaching course. “You can avoid that if Helman follows the UEFA Pro Licence courses. You need that as the coach of the national team."

Broos and Mkhalele have been tight as glue over the last four years, creating a lifelong brotherhood as they’ll now coach at the World Cup for the first time since playing in the 1986 and 1996 global showpiece respectively. But it wasn’t love at first sight.

“When we met for the first time, he was very shy,” Broos recalled. “In the last camp, after the game against Rwanda, we were drinking and laughing about it.

“We first met at a hotel in Sandton, and he was very shy. I told him, ‘I hope you won’t be shy, because if you are, you won’t be my assistant.’

“Slowly, he started to open up. I’ve said it before, without him, we wouldn’t have the success we have now. He helped me a lot, especially in the first year. I will always be grateful to him!”

Mkhalele clearly heeded Broos’ call. So much so that when he became the sole right-hand man of the silver-haired Belgian following the departure of Cedomir Janevski, he became not just a figurehead in the team but a true leader.

“The 5% (time we, perhaps, don't see eye-to-eye) is when we are making the preliminary or final squad. There’s a discussion about who we will take,” Broos explained. “Helman learned to speak up, because in the beginning he was a little bit shy.

“I told him, ‘you are not here to keep quiet. If you don’t agree with me, please tell me'. There are moments when I said, ‘no, we’ll take this one, since I am the head coach'. But there are also times when I said, ‘you are right, we’ll take that one'.

“I love working with Helman. He’s a very nice guy, humble, loyal, and he knows football, which is the most important thing.”

So, as Broos nears his final few months with the team ahead of the AFCON in December and the World Cup in June, he described what it will be like to bid farewell to Mkhalele.

“It will be a tough day when I say to everyone, ‘thank you and goodbye',” Broos said. “It will be very tough, surely. I have friends here now. I have to say goodbye to Helman. It won’t be easy at all, but that’s life.”