Bafana Bafana striker Lars Veldwijk says he is eager to prove his worth to coach Stuart Baxter as the build-up towards the AFCON continues.
Veldwjk has thus far managed to impress Baxter enough to earn one of the 23 spots on the plane to the Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt.
With just two international caps to his name, the naturalised Dutch-born South African is fighting to make his competition debut for Bafana as they prepare to face Ivory Coast in their tournament opener next Monday.
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The 27-year-old, who plays his club football for newly-promoted Eredivisie side Sparta Rotterdam, netted an impressive 24 goals in 36 games as he captained the club in the Eerste Divisie last season.
Veldwijk's inclusion in the AFCON squad was explained by Baxter, who felt the 1,96m-tall forward "did not score a lot of goals for no reason", adding that "he's not so easy on the eye as a Percy Tau or a Lebo [Mothiba], but he's certainly not a bad finisher."
But the former Nottingham Forrest and PEC Zwolle attacker is out to further impress his national team boss, after scoring a hat-trick in their training match in Cairo on Wednesday.
"Yeah, we're having a good preparation. Yesterday we had a good practice match and it was nice for me to score some goals," he told SAFA.net.
"For me, it's only to prove to the coach that I'm ready, and hopefully I showed him enough – there were two nice volleys, one with my left and one with my right, and the other was a penalty."
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Asked whether he feels he could crack the nod for a starting berth against the Elephants in four days, the soft-spoken striker said: "It's not up to me [if I start or not]. I just want to show the coach what I can do, and I'm happy that I'm here and made the final squad.
"Like I said, we've had some good preparation – a good week in Jo'burg, a good week in Dubai and now we're in Egypt [Cairo], so we need to get the final things right and it's up to the coach who's going to play.
"But I think we have lots of quality in the team and all 23 players are ready for it."
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