Brockie is on the 30-man shortlist for the African Player of the Year - Based in Africa award, along with teammate Dean Furman and the Mamelodi Sundowns duo of Percy Tau and Denis Onyango, with the latter winning the prize last year.
Brockie is the top scorer in the Confederation Cup with 10 goals, living up to his nickname as the ‘Sniper’. He has a hat-trick and two braces in the competition.
“It’s a little surreal to have the nomination. We have a SuperSport WhatsApp group and one of guys posted the story from your website in our group. I jumped on social media and I saw everyone going on about it. It’s a fantastic achivement and hopefully I can represent SuperSport well,” the New Zealand-born striker tells snl24.com/kickoff.
He also praised United captain Furman for being nominated.
“He [Furman] has been fantastic since he came back to play in South Africa, both on and off the pitch. He does a lot for the boys, a lot of which goes unnoticed. So it’s a great reward for him to be nominated. It’s great that SuperSport United are nominated.”
SuperSport have a Confederation Cup final meeting against defending champions TP Mazembe waiting for them later this month and it would be perfect for Brockie to win the trophy, the player of the year accolade and also finish as top scorer.
“I won’t get ahead of myself just yet. It would be fantastic to win the CAF trophy. We have travelled all over Africa and it has really brought us together as a team. The hard work does not stop here. We’ve got two massive games and hopefully we come out as winners,” the striker says.
There have been some people questioning why Brockie has been nominated for the award, even though he was not born in Africa.
“It’s obviously confusion. The one award is for the African player of the year, for those who either play on the continent or outside Africa. This one is for players based in Africa. That’s where the confusion lies. So you have to be playing football in Africa, no matter where you come from. I am the first non-African to be nominated for this award, which is something I am very proud of.”