The South African men's national football team, also known affectionately by local supporters as Bafana Bafana, recently finished at the top of Group K in the qualifying stage of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON 2025 or CAN 2025), and many expect them to go all the way and lift the trophy for the second time since the tournament began in 1957.
However, others are less optimistic about them winning AFCON 2025, despite their resurgence as one of the African continent's best footballing nations. With that said, let's take a look at some of their latest results to find out what's behind the progression of the South African men's national football team.
One of the main catalysts that has led to South Africa having somewhat of a resurgence was when they failed to qualify for the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations. Head coach Molefi Ntseki was sacked for failing to qualify and replaced by Hugo Broos, who is still the head coach of Bafana Bafana today.
He restructured the team and replaced several of the ageing players with promising young stars. Since restructuring the squad and bringing in talented young individuals, the team has made significant progress.
Despite losing to Nigeria in the semi-finals at AFCON 2023, they have since beaten their Nigerian opponents each time they have faced them.
Each player has put in solid performances, and some of the standout players who have scored the most and helped them qualify for the 2025 AFCON tournament are Teboho Mokoena, Patrick Maswanganyi, Iqraam Raymers, Thapelo Morena, Elias Mokwana, Lyle Foster, and Bathusi Aubaas.
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South Africa are currently climbing their way up through the official FIFA world rankings. They recently jumped three positions into 57th, and they are expected to move even higher when the rankings are updated on December 19, 2024. It was last updated on November 28.
They finished top of Group K in the AFCON 2025 qualifying stage above runners-up Uganda (who also qualified for AFCON 2025), third-place Congo, and fourth-place South Sudan. Bafana Bafana won 4 of their 6 games and ended up topping the group with 14 points and drawing the other 2 games in an unbeaten run.
In their final group stage match on November 19, they beat South Sudan 3-0. On November 15, they beat Uganda 2-0, and on October 15, they drew 1-1 with the DR Congo. They also beat South Sudan 3-2 and drew 2-2 with Uganda in their other games.
Despite their recent fine form, it's not looking likely that South Africa will be priced as the favourites to win the competition outright. However, they could be a quiet underdog.
Although the 2025 AFCON odds have yet to be released, the theoretical odds that today's most trusted online bookmakers will most offer may appear as follows:
Here are some more hypothetical odds for the next seven odds-on favourite teams:
Other teams that also qualified for the finals but have less chance of winning the tournament outright are Angola, Burkina Faso, Zambia, Equatorial Guinea, Comoros, Gabon, and Mozambique.
That's not forgetting Tanzania, Uganda, Benin, Sudan, Zimbabwe, and Botswana (the current least favourite to win).
Although South Africa may not be one of the clear favourites to win at this stage, South African fans will be more than happy with these odds, and even impartial football betting fans will view South Africa as an excellent value bet to win AFCON 2025 outright.
The important thing to remember about football betting is that the favourites don't always win. Sometimes, even the lower-ranked teams with higher odds and low implied probability rates can come out on top.
In other words, there's a good chance that Bafana Bafana can win AFCON 2025 based on their recent resurgence and current form. We will just have to wait and see what happens.
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