Bafana Bafana coach Molefi Ntseki explains why Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs players are no longer dominating the national team.
Ntseki recently announced a 25-man South Africa squad to take on Ghana and Sudan in the upcoming 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, with only left-back Innocent Maela and winger Thembinkosi Lorch making it from the Buccaneers, and just defender Eric Mathoho from Chiefs.
Amakhosi's Lebogang Manyama has since also been called up to replace injured Mamelodi Sundowns midfielder Themba Zwane.
READ: Why Ntseki turned to Chiefs for Manyama
"I think when I was also growing up as a footballer, as a coach, I used to question myself how do you get a player in the national team," Ntseki tells snl24.com/kickoff.
"In the national team it's not only about the talent, it's also about personality that you bring in the national team. And if you look at Kaizer Chiefs, Pirates, Sundowns, all the big teams that we had in the past, they used to recruit the best players, not only in terms of talent but in terms of personality.
"So they had a very strong personality, they had very strong characters coming into the game. You talk of Doctor Khumalo, who was a highly celebrated player, but on the day he would give you his best, he would never disappoint anyone, very consistent.
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"So I think currently if we can have more consistent performances from the players coming from those clubs, we will have more of them in the national team.
"If you look currently at Sundowns they've been very consistent, that is why they had more numbers of players in the national team. If you look at Bidvest Wits they've been very consistent, that is why they had more numbers in the national team.
"Even when you look back during the times of Coach Shakes [Mashaba] and Coach Stuart [Baxter]... then you have SuperSport that has been very consistent, that is why you see more of their players in the national team.
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"So the past few years Chiefs have been struggling to win games and to be rated among the top teams in the country through winning the PSL championship, through winning trophies, they've been struggling. We are talking of a period of more than four years.
"It's the same thing with Pirates. Pirates there were times where they won the treble, there were times where they were doing well. So even with Pirates, Pirates have been struggling to win the league, Pirates have been struggling to win the trophies so that is why you end up not having any of their players in the national team.
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"Because all that is important is consistency and personality that you want to see in the player having to play international football.
"So Pirates are coming back, hopefully they will start winning. Chiefs is coming back, hopefully they will be consistent and start winning. Obviously we will then start seeing the best players coming out of Chiefs and Pirates."
South Africa face Ghana in Accra on Thursday, 14 November and host Sudan on Sunday, 17 November at Orlando Stadium.
READ: Ghana name squad to face Bafana