While Hugo Broos has spoken about Relebohile Mofokeng's future with Bafana Bafana, social media has been a hive of activity with fans discussing the Orlando Pirates young star's performance.
Against South Sudan on Tuesday with Bafana 3-0 up and having already qualified for next year's Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco, the President Yama 2000 – as the talented 20-year-old is known in football circles – was introduced with 15 minutes to go much to the huge applause of the packed DHL Stadium amid an electrifying atmosphere.
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Within the short space of time on the field, Mofokeng managed to have a few box entries and a shot on target, while he also created some scoring opportunities with his passes to teammates although the score remained 3-0 after missed chances.
However, some fans and especially those who were not at the stadium, were not entirely pleased with how the Sharpeville-born player expressed himself in showing his skills when in possession and labelled it as showboating.
After the match, Broos appeared to be pleased with Mofokeng's performance and said the reason why he isn't starting him in matches is that he feels it is still a little early.
Former Pirates star Thapelo Liau believes that players like Mofokeng shouldn't be discouraged from using their God-given talent to good effect.
"For the past few days after the Bafana Bafana game, I see there are lot of debates about showboating. Actually, who taught black South African soccer-loving people this word 'showboating?' During the great years of super stars, Masterpieces Moripe, Chippa Moloi, Bernard Hartze, Ace Ntsoelengoe, Jomo Sono, Shuffle Mokopane, Teenage Dladla, Ace Mnini (and others), was this word there? Why are we always gaging ourselves with Europeans by the way they play? Are we them? Are we ever going to dominate them if we want to be their photocopies? Do we hate ourselves like that? We should play football the way we know how to. We should play according to our strengths and (some of) our strengths are dribbling and skills. That's what makes us to be different from Europeans," wrote Liau on his official Facebook page.
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"As long as our players understand that we play to win, they can do anything they like with the ball the way our football ancestors did, and that's why we still glorify them until today. Just like during war, one must use all the weapons he has. Now we should sit, and watch players playing trap and pass the whole 90 minutes? Come on, that is boring. The difference between us and the Brazilians is that they respect the football skills that God gave them as a country and they are not copycats," Liau added.
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By Masebe Qina
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