Much has been made of Ronwen Williams' heroics for Bafana Bafana, as the goalkeeper-captain led South Africa to third place at the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) earlier this year.
However, at the other end of the field, they have yet to fully settle on a permanent answer to a longstanding question: Who can be relied upon to lead the line and fire them to continental glory?
There are promising signs of progress. Current head coach Hugo Broos has more options in the striker position than Bafana have had in years, and they have scored 11 goals in four 2025 AFCON qualifiers.
The immediate focus is on qualifiers against Uganda (November 15) and South Sudan (November 19,) with only one win needed to qualify for the tournament in Morocco. However, it is still unclear if Bafana have a dependable long-term solution for producing and selecting reliable goalscorers upfront.
Of Bafana's all-time top 10 goalscorers, the only one on the list who is starting regularly for Bafana is Themba Zwane, who is a winger/attacking midfielder with 12 international goals. Zwane is out of the current squad with injury.
No modern striker has come close to matching former Manchester United coach Benni McCarthy's record of 31, with Bafana often struggling for goals since his retirement in 2013.
Lyle Foster: Can the Golden Boy get back to his best?
Mamelodi Sundowns stopper Williams is the Bafana player getting the most individual attention at present, but of those who Broos has relied upon throughout his tenure, the one of whom most was expected was Lyle Foster.
Williams was honoured for his AFCON heroics with a nomination for the Yashin Trophy at the Ballon d'Or ceremony this year. However, four years ago, the current national team captain was only just beginning to cement his spot in the team while a younger compatriot, Foster, was nominated for the European Golden Boy award.
By many measures, Foster has still had a career to be proud of - including a stint in the Premier League with Burnley, for whom he now plays in the Championship. However, he has yet to develop into the marksman his early promise suggested.
Foster has been battling injury and has been left out of the Bafana squad for Uganda and South Sudan, but will be in the running for a place should they qualify for AFCON 2025.
Foster scored five times in the Premier League last season and has one Championship goal to his name in 2024/25. Struggles with his mental health denied him the opportunity to chase double figures in the top flight last term. He is still in strong form for Bafana, but injury is standing in his way currently.
"He [was] playing the top league and the problem previously was injury and other problems that happened in life," Augusto Palacios - the coach who nurtured Foster at his own Augusto Palacios Apprentice Academy and at Orlando Pirates - told ESPN.
"He's still a good top striker in the club and Bafana like last time [that he played], he scored for Bafana and got injured. Until today, he has not recovered."
Can Iqraam Rayners make the spot his own?
With Foster out injured, Iqraam Rayners is in the form of his life for Bafana Bafana. He has succeeded at club level, too, since excelling in his second stint at Stellenbosch FC and subsequently moving to defending champions Mamelodi Sundowns this year.
Prior to his return to Stellenbosch in January 2023, Rayners was at SuperSport United, who often used him on the wing.
"Iqraam Rayners is a number nine that needs to be in the box and he will get you goals. He was playing out wide for SuperSport. He's not someone that takes on tactical instruction the best, but if you play him in the middle, you let other players compensate for his lack of defensive ability, then Iqraam will get you goals," Stellenbosch FC head of recruitment Brendon Fourie told ESPN.
Rayners cannot be faulted for his displays in a Bafana shirt. He has scored three times in eight appearances for his country since his debut in March.
However, the fact that it took so long for him to be handed his debut for the national team, aged 28 already, speaks to a broader problem in South African football - talented players slip through the cracks early in their careers and are often only given an opportunity in a Bafana shirt when valuable time has been lost. This is not an issue unique to the striker position.
Dave Waters' book "Dual Dream" analysed the ages of starting players in South Africa's Premiership, and found that from 6-11 March 2020, only 13 out of 176 starting players across the league were between the ages of 18-22. At the time, only one - Tanzania's Ally Msengi - was under 20.
In the ongoing season, only Stellenbosch FC and Kaizer Chiefs have fielded starting lineups at any point in the league campaign with average ages of under 26. By contrast, in the Premier League, at least 11 clubs have fielded a team with an average age of 25.9 or lower at some point this season.
Do South Africa's development structures have the answer?
Much of the problem stems from South Africa's dearth of youth football setups that offer holistic development from a young age, the way Palacios did for Foster.
"We're definitely on the right track [towards addressing South Africa's systemic scoring problems], but it's a long way to go still," Palacios told ESPN.
"The level of PSL is different to the national team. Some strikers did not have development from an early age.
"The media writes good [things] when players are scoring and performing. Then, the players sleep in the comfortable time when they need to be working more."
"The coach of Bafana gives opportunity to everyone but performance must be high to be in Bafana."
Robin Petersen, the former South African Football Association (SAFA) CEO, alluded in a 2019 interview to the specific consequence for goalscoring of a lack of formal development structures in South African football.
Petersen told ESPN at the time: "My experience of why we don't finish is that it has to do with the culture of street football that we have that forms the basis of so much. If you think about it, if you're playing football on a township field or the streets in the townships, there generally aren't goals and there certainly aren't nets.
"If you do shoot, you're likely to lose the ball or puncture it. The skills that are developed and celebrated are the showboating in midfield, keeping possession (sic), doing tricks, that kind of thing. That's what's celebrated much more than scoring a goal.
"I think that's a large part of where our culture of not finishing comes from - it comes from the conditions in which a lot of our football is played as youngsters in the streets."
Perhaps part of the reason, then, why Foster has not had stiffer competition for a starting berth lies in the fact that not many players had the tools to enable them to succeed.
Foster, by contrast, was a known talent by his late teens due to Palacios having gone out of his way to keep him in his academy when he had, according to Palacios, considered quitting. The Peruvian mentor credited Foster's strong family structure for helping him stay disciplined.
Who else can Broos call on at striker?
Broos has left Percy Tau out of contention for this international window due to his lack of playing time at club level for Al Ahly.
Bongokuhle Hlongwane, 24, is a winger capable of playing upfront who has excelled recently for Minnesota United. However, Broos omitted him from the final squad, favouring Evidence Makgopa, also 24, who has scored four goals in six league games this season for Orlando Pirates.
So, for this international window, it is likely to be either Rayners or Makgopa starting upfront, with Rayners seemingly having the edge based on Broos' most recent team selection.
Broos alluded to the increased strength in depth across the front line when he explained the decision to keep Hlongwane out of the team.
"I think Bongokuhle Hlongwane did well in America in the last months; he played well. But when you're going through players that are not there, I can also say a few other names," said Broos at a press conference.
"So those are choices you have to make, and I know there was a time two years ago when the choices were much easier to make because we didn't have so many players who were able to play in Bafana Bafana."
South Africa are in a far better position now than in 2019, when they advanced to the quarter-finals of the AFCON tournament in Egypt, but have only scored three goals in five games.
They have options for the present day in the striker position, albeit not a clear answer on who will lead the line for years to come.
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