Bafana Bafana coach Gordon Igesund’s 23 man squad for the 2013 CAF Africa Cup of Nations to be held in South Africa from 19 January-10 February, will have a very strong Amakhosi feel about it as the South African mentor included seven Chiefs players to the team who will be looking to win the title on home soil as Bafana Bafana did in 1996.

Goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune along with defenders Tshepo Masilela and Siboniso Gaxa as well as midfielders Reneilwe Letsholonyane and Siphiwe Tshabalala and on form Chiefs striking duo of Lehlohonolo Majoro and Bernard Parker who have been rewarded for their scintillating league form, will be doing duty for Bafana Bafana at the Nations Cup.

For Chiefs it represents the most number of Amakhosi players called up to a major senior international tournament either the Fifa World Cup or Africa Cup Of Nations, in 2004 the Amakhosi had five players who formed part of the Bafana squad in Tunisia and have now managed to eclipse that feat.

Three of the Chiefs players called up represented South Africa the last time they featured in the Nations Cup which was back in 2008 when Ghana were the hosts, Siphiwe Tshabalala and Tsepo Masilela did see game time for then coach Carlos Alberto Pereira while a young Itumeleng Khune was part of the squad as a learning curve.

For Siphiwe Tshabalala it will be his third Nations Cup tournament having also gone to the 2006 tournament in Egypt when he was still playing for Free State Stars, he joins former Amakhosi goalkeeper Brian Baloyi as the only Chiefs players to have been called up to two Africa Cup of Nations tournaments for Bafana Bafana.

Brian Baloyi was South Africa’s No 1 at the 1998 tournament in which South Africa finished Runners Up to Egypt in Burkina Faso, although he was part of the squad he did not feature in any games in Mali in 2002, should Tshabalala see any game time at the Nations Cup he will be the first Chiefs player to have played for Bafana Bafana at two different Nations Cup tournaments.

Playing at the 2013 Nations Cup will also see Tshabalala equal the mark set by former Chiefs midfielder Tinashe Nengomasha who while still with the Amakhosi featured for Zimbabwe at the 2004 and 2006 Africa Cup of Nations tournaments.

Tsepo Masilela like Tshabalala also heads to his third Nations Cup tournament; he played alongside another Chiefs player Jimmy Tau in defense for Bafana Bafana in their final group game against Zambia at the 2006 tournament.

Gaxa like Tshabalala and Masilela also has past Nations Cup experience to draw on, he was with them at the 2006 tournament staged in Egypt, Letsholonyane a member of the Bafana Bafana squad at the 2010 Fifa World Cup along with Majoro and Parker will be featuring at their first Nations Cup tournament.

Bafana Bafana get the tournament under way at the National Stadium in Johannesburg in a double header on January 19 when they face Cape Verde in the opening game in Group A, Morocco will thereafter take on Angola.

Past Chiefs players called up to Bafana Bafana squads at the Africa Cup of Nations

1996 Neil Tovey, Doctor Khumalo


1998 Thabo Mooki, Brian Baloyi


2000 Siyabonga Nomvete


2002 Brian Baloyi


2004 John ‘Shoes’ Moshoeu, David Kannemeyer, Stanton Fredericks, Jabu Pule and Patrick Mayo


2006 Jimmy Tau


2008 Itumeleng Khune, Siphiwe Tshabalala

*John ‘Shoes’ Moshoeu featured in four Nations Cup tournaments, only in 2004 did he do so as a Chiefs player