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Baxter tells SAFA he wants son as GK coach

Cape Town - According to widespread reports, Stuart Baxter told the South Africa Football Association (SAFA) that he will only accept the Bafana Bafana job if his son is the goalkeeper coach.

Sport24 reported last week that the SuperSport United coach is due to meet with SAFA to discuss a possible return to the Bafana Bafana helm.

"SuperSport United FC has given permission to The South African Football Association (SAFA) to engage their head coach Stuart Baxter with a view to him becoming the head coach of Bafana Bafana," read the statement from the Premiership club.

Baxter mentored the senior national side between May 2004 and November 2005, but failed to meet the requirement of guiding South Africa through the 2006 Soccer World Cup qualification rounds.

The SowetanLIVE website reported that Baxter has already agreed personal terms and will earn around R1 million a month.

The reason SAFA have not made the announcement official is because Baxter will only accept the job if his son, Lee, becomes the Bafana Bafana’s national team coach.

Lee previously worked with his father at United, AIK in Sweden and at Genclerbirligi in Turkey.

SAFA have been working around the clock in order to get a new head coach after sacking Shakes Mashaba in December last year.

Many local coaches’ names have been brought up such as Roger de Sa, Eric Tinkler, Pitso Mosimane and Gavin Hunt while the association released a statement in February listing several international candidates up for the job.

However, it was not to be as all of the names including Herve Renard and Carlos Queiroz publically announced that they will not consider the offer if SAFA approaches.

Matsatsantsa defender Clayton Daniels believes that Baxter is the right man to take the national team forward in their quest to qualify for the Soccer World Cup.

"If the coach (Baxter) does become the Bafana coach, he is the right man, if given the right platform to do his job to the best of his ability," Daniels tells KickOff

"I think he is one of the best I have worked with and I have seen how he has changed me as a player, and I hope I can continue working with him, whether it's at club or national team level.

"While it is not confirmed that he will be joining Bafana, we are still happy to have him as a our coach (at SuperSport)."

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