Links on shoulders of giants in Bafana WC ‘exclusion’

Despite shining and winning the Danish Superliga with Aarhus this season, South African winger Gift Links is unlikely to be part of Hugo Broos’ World Cup squad. KickOff takes a look at previous big Bafana omissions for the tournament.

Links has barely featured for the national team under Broos and last did so in a 0-0 draw against Zimbabwe back in September 2021. If, as expected, he is not in the World Cup squad, he will not be the first high-profile player to suffer that fate.

Then 32, McCarthy was controversially dropped on the eve of the 2010 World Cup owing to an off-field controversy. At the time, he was beyond his prime, though still able to score goals. Some would have felt that Bafana’s all-time top scorer with 31 international goals could have added experience and leadership to the World Cup squad that year, especially as he had played for his nation at the 1998 and 2002 tournaments.

Then playing in Greece, it was expected that Moon would be part of the World Cup squad in 2010 as he had also been part of the 2009 Confederations Cup and 2008 Africa Cup of Nations squads.

Known for blistering pace, he was left out by Carlos Perreira for tactical reasons with other notable exclusions also being goalkeeper Rowen Fernandez, former Ajax Cape Town winger Franklin Cale, and defender Innocent Mdledle.

Officially, the reason why 1996 AFCON winner Fish was left out of the World Cup squad was due to injury. However, in the lead-up to the global showpiece, he sent conflicting messages about his commitment to the national team cause and about whether he would play at the World Cup, which was believed to have angered some high-profile officials within SA football.

Fish was, at the time, also under pressure as he had to balance the demands of club football in England with national team commitments, then saying, as quoted by BBC, "When I was playing at Bolton, I missed more than 25 matches due to being called up for national duty over a three-year period.

"People were pointing fingers at me for not being there when it mattered to the team."