South Africa's climb back to FIFA World Cup qualification and being viewed as serious contenders for the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) has accelerated over the last two years, but did not happen overnight.
The road back to the top of Africa arguably began years before current coach Hugo Broos took the Bafana Bafana job in May 2021, as one of his predecessors began transforming South Africa's approach to continental club competitions.
Broos has undoubtedly played a key role in Bafana's success. However, there are other coaches working alongside him and also in South Africa's Betway Premiership without whom South Africa likely could not have reached the heights they have scaled.
With a 2-1 win over Angola in their AFCON 2025 opener under their belt, Bafana will be feeling cautiously optimistic of finally reaping the benefits of a football revolution almost a decade in the making.
Step 1: Mosimane revives CAF CL competitiveness
The seeds of Bafana's revival were arguably planted over nine years ago, when Pitso Mosimane led Sundowns to 2016 CAF Champions League glory.
CAF competitions had not been prioritised by South African clubs for some years before Sundowns' historic campaign, which saw them beat Egyptian giants Zamalek over two legs in the final.
However, Sundowns under the Motsepe family have long viewed supremacy in Africa rather than only South Africa as their ultimate goal. Mosimane was the first football brain to develop a vision for that success.
Determined to redeem himself after a failed stint in charge of Bafana Bafana, Mosimane managed the minutes of his squad superbly - pushing them to their limits while asking them to prioritise African competitions. The experience gained by South African players during their continental campaigns has often been cited as central to Bafana Bafana's revival.
Step 2: Broos & co. raise Bafana bar
Belgian Broos was appointed Bafana Bafana head coach on May 5, 2021, and the job of a Bafana Bafana player has never been quite the same since.
The blunt-talking Broos made it clear early on that nobody was exempt from his public hairdryer treatment if they failed to show a higher level of professionalism than the standards of the old status quo. He was publicly critical of high-profile players, coaches and administrators and ruffled feathers, but an uptick in results bought him time to sell his vision.
Broos' irreverent approach has come at a cost occasionally. An early example was his initial refusal to select Mamelodi Sundowns' Themba Zwane - which he eventually admitted was a mistake. Zwane subsequently became a key part of his team, but persistent injuries have kept him out of the AFCON.
More recently and perhaps more importantly, he had to apologise for comments made about defender Mbekezeli Mbokazi and his agent, Basia Michaels.
However, the fact that the South African Football Association (SAFA) backed him through the Mbokazi incident is a sign of just how highly the value of Broos' work is regarded in pure football terms.
Broos has always acknowledged that he has not done the work of transforming Bafana Bafana alone. He has often given credit to his technical team and singled out assistant coach Helman Mkhalele in particular for providing him with detailed information about South African football on which he has built his own understanding of the local game.
Where Broos himself has made the most impact in South Africa's third-place finish at AFCON 2023 and qualification of the 2026 FIFA World Cup have been in his fearlessness selecting young players where predecessors hesitated to and the impact his high standards have had on the levels of professionalism within the camp.
Step 3: Mngqithi, Mokwena continue Mosimane mission
When Broos led Bafana Bafana to third place at AFCON 2023, the bulk of his starting XI came from Rhulani Mokwena's Mamelodi Sundowns.
The Belgian may not have seen eye-to-eye with Mokwena or Manqoba Mngqithi (who also had time in charge after Mosimane's departure) but he benefitted from Mosimane's former assistants stepping up and continuing Sundowns' era of dominance even after their former mentor left South Africa - initially for Al Ahly in 2020.
Although both coaches have moved on and the national team is no longer dominated by Sundowns players in the way it was two years ago, could be argued that Mngqithi and particularly Mokwena have had a huge hand in South Africa's continuity at the top and preparing the players for the roles they ultimately played in the Belgian's team.
Sundowns retained the league title last season under Portuguese head coach Miguel Cardoso - who has not yet had as much time to implement his vision as his predecessors but has them in the title race once again.
Step 4: Orlando Pirates build from the bottom up
Had Orlando Pirates not responded strongly in recent years to the gauntlet thrown by Mamelodi Sundowns, South African football would be in a different place to where it is now.
Pirates were the first South African club to win the CAF Champions League in 1995 and are one of the country's two best supported clubs along with Kaizer Chiefs. However, after Sundowns became the second African club champions from South Africa, they tightened their grip locally and have won every league title since 2017-18.
When José Riveiro took over as Orlando Pirates head coach in 2022, the rest of the country was well off Sundowns' pace - largely due to the vast funds invested on transfers by the Motsepe family's club.
Pirates would not be able to compete in a tit-for-tat spending war, so they upgraded their youth structures substantially and Riveiro's then-controversial appointment proved a masterstroke. The Spaniard never hesitated to bring the brightest products from Pirates' youth structures into their first team.
Pirates began chipping away at Sundowns' dominance and rivalling them for the core of Broos' team - particularly as some South African players struggled for game time at the South African champions.
New head coach Abdeslam Ouaddou has picked up where Riveiro left off and continues to promote new talent. Pirates currently sit top of the Premiership - two points ahead of Sundowns with a game in hand.
With nine players in the 25-man Bafana Bafana squad (including Chicago Fire-bound Mbokazi), they are now the best-represented club in Hugo Broos' travelling group. Apart from shrewd recruitment at senior level, this is largely a result of the success of their youth development structures.
"Orlando Pirates definitely have a vision of management structure looking not only at the here and now, but also the future," former Orlando Pirates co-head coach and current Raja Casablanca boss Fadlu Davids said in response to ESPN at a virtual South African Football Journalists' Association (SAFJA) press conference - speaking on the roots of the Buccaneers' youth development success.
"Pirates always have those tours... Their young teams travel to the UK or [elsewhere in] Europe to be able to play different matches and have that experience. You have the Pirates Cup that is happening every year. It's not by accident that Pirates are suddenly producing and playing more youngsters and producing players for the national team.
"This is all due to the people behind the scenes - the people that are not always trying to be in the media spotlight, but [are responsible for] strategic thinking - instant success plans, five year-plans, 10-year plans - you will see it now.
"Orlando Pirates are always looking for that X-factor. They're not the team that are always going to buy the best players like Sundowns. They have a different strategy and now that they're producing these young players... They will always thrive and they will be up there challenging Sundowns in the years to come.
"You're not always guaranteed success, but the way they are doing it - the way they are investing in the club, in the youth, in the structures behind the scenes to make the first team top, top-tier in international standards - they will always create the right environment for these players to thrive and grow and be ready."
Had Sundowns not raised the bar for South African club sides, Pirates would likely not have been forced to upgrade their scouting system and assemble a supremely talented young squad. Had the Buccaneers not responded to the challenge, the national team would have been far poorer for it.
Leonard Solms reacts to Bafana Bafana's opening win over Angola in AFCON but admits they must have issues to address.
Step 5 (still in progress): Bafana to complete the climb?
For Bafana to fully complete their return to the summit of Africa and become a dominant force, there are two key issues to be addressed: the team needs to gain more experience in the crunch stages of international tournaments and youth development structures need to be upgraded beyond the success of a few clubs in order for the pyramid to be sustainable.
The disappearance of clubs from the professional ranks who had played key roles in the ecosystem as talent-producers - from Ajax Cape Town (now Cape Town Spurs), to Bidvest Wits to SuperSport United - gives cause for concern.
Stellenbosch FC have done their best to fill the void, but could find themselves in a top-flight relegation battle this season if form does not improve after the AFCON.
Despite his overwhelmingly positive experience at Orlando Pirates, Davids admitted that he has seen deeper development structures in Morocco than he had in South Africa.
"If you want to compare the two: South Africa have done well over a certain period, but there's a lot more that could be invested into the youth [in the form of] better academies, qualified coaches and coaches that are specialist in their divisions in South Africa," Davids told SAFJA.
"We have the natural, raw talent coming out of South Africa - but if we invest a little bit more into the youth, we will be able to not only have a period of success in Bafana - but have a sustainable conveyor belt of quality youngsters that don't only have the talent, but are taught the basic fundamentals in youth development.
"We would be able to equip them for international standard and have more players not only playing in South Africa but in the top leagues in Europe."
For the time being, Bafana will be focused on the more current assignment in Morocco of delivering an AFCON title for the first time since their heroic triumph on home soil in 1996.