Mobara proves he belongs with Bafana
Abbubaker Mobara showed he is ready for the big time with a solid display against Mauritania in his first game for South Africa.
|||Johannesburg - “I just want to play, (it doesn’t matter where),” Abbubaker Mobara said in response to which position he prefers being used in.
The 22-year-old plays in central midfield at Orlando Pirates under Muhsin Ertugral who gave him his professional debut at Ajax Cape Town three years ago. He arrived at the Urban Warriors as a striker. But in the national team, whether it’s the Under-23s or Bafana Bafana, Mobara has been used at rightback.
The lad from Mitchells Plain excels in all those positions, which is why it’s hard to pinpoint where to use him to get the best out of him. He was the standout player in Bafana’s disappointing 1-1 draw with Mauritania at Mbombela Stadium on Friday. And that was his debut. But he contained the nerves, just as he had done in the Olympics where he bottled up Brazil’s star Neymar.
The Olympics was only one of the great things that have happened to Mobara, pictured, in the past couple of months. He won the Cosafa Cup in June right after signing for Orlando Pirates. Tomorrow night he will play his first game at Orlando Stadium with the home team. But it won’t be with the Buccaneers. It will be with the senior national team who take on Egypt in the Nelson Mandela Challenge that kicks off at 7.10pm.
“I just have to keep calm,” Mobara said. “I am not here to talk about a lot of things. I can only play football. I am not good at talking. I know what I want. I know where I am heading because I know who I want to become one day. I love what I do.”
While the match against Mauritania was the end of Bafana’s disastrous 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifying campaign, it was the start of Mobara’s chapter with the senior national team. He has not just knocked on the Bafana door with his display in the Olympics, he kicked it open and in Nelspruit he made himself comfortable as he looks to remain there for a long time.
“Every game that I play, I take it like it’s my last,” Mobara said. “Going to Rio, wanting to do well for myself, the team and my country drove me to excel. I just want to play football. That’s what I think that I am good at. I train like it’s my last training session because I want to be the best by improving on and off the field. The journey was incredible. I won’t stop. I just want to improve as a player and become one of the best. That’s what I am striving for.”
Even though Bafana coach Shakes Mashaba said he would use the side’s two games, against Mauritania and Egypt, to try different combinations - he isn’t likely to tamper much with the team because of the pressure he is under.
Winning this match will be his immediate goal after his boss Safa president Danny Jordaan spoke out against the team’s lacklustre display in the dead-rubber against Mauritania.
Mashaba was defiant on Friday night, saying that he is confident that he can take the team to the 2018 World Cup in Russia despite failing to guide them to the Afcon.
To do that, he has to guide Bafana to a first-place finish in a group that has Burkina Faso, Senegal and Cape Verde. It will be a gruelling campaign. But after the disappointment of the Afcon qualifiers, Mashaba will be looking to make amends …that’s if he is still in charge of the team.
The Star