Forty years ago, Hugo Broos walked onto the pitch at Estadio Azteca as a Belgian defender facing Mexico in a World Cup opener. Now 74, he’s walking back into the same stadium as the head coach of South Africa, tasked with pulling off the kind of upset that eluded him the first time around.
Full circle at the Azteca
In 1986, Broos started for Belgium in front of 110,000 spectators as Mexico claimed a 2-1 victory in the tournament’s curtain-raiser.
Now he returns to Mexico City not as a player but as the architect of South Africa’s World Cup campaign. The emotional weight of the moment isn’t lost on him, though he’s been clear that sentiment will take a back seat to strategy once the whistle blows.
Building something from scratch
