Olwethu Makhanya's Fresh Start with Bafana Bafana

Olwethu Makhanya does not sound like a man looking back. He sounds like a defender who believes his international career is finally about to start.

For a long time under Hugo Broos, it never really did.

The Rangers centre-back, widely seen as one of South Africa’s most gifted defensive exports, spent much of the Belgian’s tenure on the fringes of Bafana Bafana. Even at the FIFA World Cup in June, when his form and pedigree suggested he could anchor the backline, he watched from the bench.

Now the Broos chapter has closed and the Pitso Mosimane era has begun. For Makhanya, that change in the dugout feels like a release.

"I saw the coaching change as an opportunity for a fresh start in the national team because I always felt like I was overlooked by the previous coach," he told SABC Sport, laying bare a frustration that had simmered quietly in the background of his rise abroad.

Broos’ reign was never short of strong opinions, and one of his most pointed critiques cut close to Makhanya’s story. The former Bafana boss repeatedly questioned the standard of Major League Soccer, the league that shaped a key part of the defender’s development. To Makhanya, that stance never made sense.

He heard the dismissals of MLS. He simply did not buy them.

"I never understood the criticism because all these people probably never actually watched the MLS. People that really watch that league will tell you that it's high level football," he said.

That is not a throwaway line from a player protecting his CV. It is a challenge to a narrative that has followed MLS for years, and one that directly coloured how a national coach viewed him.

Makhanya has seen three different football worlds up close: the Scottish Premiership with Rangers, MLS in the United States, and the Betway Premiership back home. He has his own hierarchy, and he does not hesitate when asked to stack them up.

"Honestly, if I were to rank them, I'll put the Scottish Premiership first, second is the MLS, and the Betway Premiership is third."

It is a revealing order. Scotland, with its intensity, physicality and unforgiving spotlight, sits at the top. MLS, often lazily labelled a retirement league, comes next in his eyes, ahead of South Africa’s own top flight. That alone underlines how strongly he feels the American game is misunderstood.

For Bafana Bafana, the question now is simple: under Mosimane, does that blend of Scottish hardening and American schooling finally get its full airing in a national shirt?

Makhanya clearly believes it should. The next squad list will show whether his new beginning is real or just another wait on the bench.