A CAF executive has compared the latest Bafana Bafana side to the Egyptian national team that won three successive Africa Cup of Nations titles during the mid-to-late 2000s.
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The Pharaohs are the most successful side in the history of the competition with seven AFCON championships to their name.
Since 2010, the north African giants have not been as successful as in previous generations, but that year marked a year when they were able to win the tournament a third successive time, having won it in 2006 and 2008 too.
Those Egyptian sides were dominated by players from Al Ahly, with little to no players from their diaspora, and CAF's director of the development division, Raul Neves Chipenda, believes Bafana's Mamelodi Sundowns-influenced starting XI has similarities to them.
"If you analyse other teams it is the opposite, most of the other teams only have players playing abroad," the ex-Angolan Football Federation member told Soccer Laduma when asked about the lack of naturalisation within the current Bafana Bafana set-up.
"South Africa is proof that we can work in our countries to develop our players and use our players in our leagues, but we must make our leagues competitive enough for them to be able to progress and be the best because I believe the only way we can develop our players is if we make them play against the best players.
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"Most of their players are coming from one team and that makes them know each other much better, making them stronger, like we had with Al Ahly for a lot of years in Africa when the team was very strong, with the national team also being based on this team and, of course, they were also very strong."
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