Broos’ Mexican historical player to coach connection boosts

While none of the players in the current Bafana Bafana squad were born in 1986, Hugo Broos will hope memories of reaching the semifinals at his last World Cup will provide inspiration for his latest assignment.

Matchday Global11 Jun 2026

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Hugo Broos will have plenty positive reminders to energise him ahead of Bafana Bafana’s latest World Cup which gets underway on Thursday night against the hosts.

Broos was a central defender in Belgium’s 1986 World Cup squad for the tournament which was also played in Mexico.

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He was tasked by the late Guy Thys to play at centre back in that Group B opening day 2-1 defeat at the same venue – Estadio Azteca – where Bafana Bafana will play tonight.

There was a crowd of 110 000 fans in the stadium that day.

The Belgians went on to reach the semi-finals after scrapping through on penalties past both Soviet Union in the last 16 and Spain in the quarterfinals.

A Diego Maradona inspired Argentina knocked out the Belgians in the semi-finals before they lost to France on penalties in the third-place play-off.

Argentina then lifted the World Cup at the same Estadio Azteca before 114 000 fans.

For Broos, after playing in the defeat to Mexico he was benched for the 2-1 win over Iraq and then put in a full shift in the 2-2 draw against Paraguay in the last group match.

He was an unused substitute for the last 16 win over Soviet Union before coming on to play as a holding midfielder against Spain in the quarterfinals and then converting in the shootout.

After that he was an unused substitute in the next two games against Argentina and France.

Having been the oldest squad member of that Belgium 1986 squad at the time at 34, he then never played for the national team again going with 24 caps, the first of which was in 1974.

Having indicated his desire to retire, this will ironically also be the last World Cup for Broos as a coach.

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The 74-year-old will be amongst the three oldest coaches at the tournament, along with Dick Advocaat of Curacao and Miroslav Koubek of fellow Group A opponents Czech Republic.

"It was an advantage that 40 years ago I had that experience too as a player, so I knew immediately what we had to do," says Broos.