The coach of the senior national football team, Collin Benjamin, says he will select players who are ready to go the extra mile for the upcoming 2023 African Nations Cup (Afcon) qualifiers against Cameroon.

Namibia, currently second in Group C with one point, will face group leaders Cameroon on a home-and-away basis on 20 and 28 March 2023 in Cameroon and South Africa.

In a recent interview with Nampa, Benjamin said their goal is to be one of the two teams that qualify for the 2023 Afcon tournament scheduled to take place in Ivory Coast.

“We have Cameroon, Burundi and Namibia in the group, with two of the teams going through to the finals. We want to be one of the two hence we are going to field our strongest possible team,” he said, making reference to Group C, which is comprised of only three teams after Kenya was disqualified from the competition.

He added that the players who will form part of his strongest squad must be mentally ready to go the extra mile if asked to do so.

“I want players who can run 12 kilometres (km) when asked to do 10km. They must be ready to leave their blood and sweat on the field of play for their country. The responsibility is now upon these players to know that they are playing two matches during the weekend and they need to look after their bodies,” Benjamin said.

The coach further stated that football players should start behaving like full-time professionals who train as hard as they can.

“There is no time to fool around and to run around with funny things. Players must fuel their bodies with the right food and drinks. They must put all their efforts into football because the platform is now given to them to be responsible,” he said.

Benjamin is currently on a work trip to South Africa and Botswana, visiting Namibian players plying their trade in those countries. He said he will be announcing his provisional squad for the Afcon qualifiers in the third week of February 2023.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency