South Africa coach Molefi Ntseki intends to travel to England and persuade Preston North End forward Tom Barkhuizen to commit his international future to Bafana Bafana after his side struggled for goals in their 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Ghana and Sudan.
Apparent shortcomings in attack defined South Africa's 2-0 defeat away in Ghana last week and the 1-0 win over Sudan at home on Sunday.
Bafana were wasteful despite edging Sudan after managing to find the target just once from six shots at goal.
They were worse against Ghana with just two goal attempts and Ntseki now plans to convince England-born Barkhuizen to pledge his international allegiance to South Africa.
“We have a concern with the strikers‚ so I will use this break to go to England to speak to Tom Barkhuizen‚ his club and his family,” said Ntseki as per Times Live.
“We are happy with his profiling and we want to see if he can get a South African passport and be able to come in.”
Barkhuizen has scored five Championship goals for Preston North End this season, having also provided five assists, statistics which have convinced Ntseki that he is the solution to Bafana’s attacking woes.
If the 26-year-old agrees to play for South Africa, he will join the likes of Percy Tau, Kermit Erasmus, Bradley Grober and Strasbourg’s Lebo Mothiba as striking options for Ntseki.
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