Percy Tau has one goal in mind at the Africa Cup of Nations – to bring the trophy home, as he told the media this week.

Your first game is a week away when you face a powerful Mali team, how is the squad feeling?

We are confident with the way we’ve been doing things. It is still early days, but I know everyone is confident about the tournament that we are going into and we are looking forward to winning it. As players, right now you just have to train hard and stay injury free.

You face your Al Ahly teammate Aliou Dieng in that match …
Yeah, it’s going to be interesting! Hopefully I’ll be smiling. I will challenge him and I know he will challenge me. But like I said, we have good confidence in the guys and they’ll help me so that I can smile at the end of the game.

With no Foster and Mothiba, this is a relatively inexperienced group of strikers, yourself aside. Have you been talking to them?
We know it’s going to be difficult, it’s not going to be easy. So that’s all that we have told them at the moment. Of course, when we get to Ivory Coast, there will be more meetings about us being there and also the teams we are going to face. So I think when we arrive that side we’ll share more about the tournament.

There is always expectation around Bafana Bafana going into major tournaments. Does that pressure get to you?
It’s always difficult for us to satisfy the public. But we’ve always wanted to be a team that will try and compete. So even the last time when I went to Egypt (in 2019) we wanted to compete and try our best to go all the way. That has not changed. People sometimes have a different opinion about the process that we’re in, perhaps based on us missing out the last time (2021), and we understand that but we want to go all the way.

Does being the senior striker add pressure for you specifically in a side that has battled for goals of late?
I think we all share the same responsibilities. I’ve been here for some time. But then when I was also earning my first few caps, the older guys shared the knowledge that they had. It helped me and I’ll try to do the same and say we all have a part to play. We are confident with the group that we have. Of course, I’m one of the seniors players. I’ll try and see with the training how we can form partnerships. But like I said, the responsibility is not solely on me. I think the other guys also have to come to play and I will also try and put in good work to help the team.

Is signing the agreement around bonusses with SAFA a relief for the players ahead of the tournament?
We’re happy that we were able to finalise the whole thing. I don’t think the money was the only issue that we had to sort out. But it is done and now we just want to focus on the football that is ahead of us.