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Molefi Ntseki wants to respect South African-born players and also look abroad for new strikers

Molefi believes South Africa has enough talent playing in the country to solve the national team's scoring issues without trying to find new members from overseas.

"No, we'll end up roping in everybody," Ntseki tells snl24.com/kickoff.

"Whenever everybody is doing well for a week and for a month then everybody will be saying to me, 'Will you consider making him a South African?'

"I think it's also unfair to our players every time to be looking at players from other countries, maybe to be getting them South African passports.

Tom Barkhuizen plays for Preston North End
Tom Barkhuizen plays for Preston North End
Barkhuizen (right) has South African parents livin
Barkhuizen (right) has South African parents living abroad
Kurt Abrahams is highly rated and plays for Wester
Kurt Abrahams is highly rated and plays for Westerlo in Belgium
Abrahams is likened to Eden Hazard because of his
Abrahams is likened to Eden Hazard because of his height and low centre of gravity
He won promotion with Sint-Truiden in 2017
He won promotion with Sint-Truiden in 2017
The 25-year-old was playing for Milano United not
The 25-year-old was playing for Milano United not so long ago
He is a ball-playing defender
He is a ball-playing defender
Thibang Phete left Vitoria Guimaraes in the off-se
Thibang Phete left Vitoria Guimaraes in the off-season to join newly promoted Portuguese side Famalicao

"What are our South African strikers saying if I keep on saying I'm looking for somebody from another country?

"So I think I should give respect to my nation, I should be respectful to South African players and give them a chance."

Ntseki was asked why South Africa shouldn't do it when football powerhouses like France and Spain do it all the time without shame and even win World Cups.

"Ja I think I have spoken about it before, people have brought some players saying 'what is your feeling, what is your comment on this other player?'

"And I said for now I will be looking for South African players who are playing overseas who don't have a South African passport.

"I also need to give respect to South African players by talking about them and trying to profile them accordingly. Yes, if he [a foreign player] is performing well for a season or so we will do it. But I'm not going to do the profiling alone.

"I want us to do it properly, with the scouting and selecting committee, so that the player needs to fit the profile that we are looking for, and then if we have to answer to the public why we are taking a player who is a Zambian to play him as a South African.

"Yes, we've got a challenge [up front] but the challenge can always be addressed. For example we had in the past months Kermit Erasmus scoring goals, Bradley Grobler scoring goals, Lebo Mothiba scoring goals for his club in France.

"So it's just a question of them taking their form and the performance from the club level into the national team level.

"Maybe if we can just exercise a little bit of patience in trying to profile everybody and see if ever we can't have a consistent performance from those players to come into the national team and score goals."

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