Cape Town - Bafana Bafana coach Stuart Baxter says former Premier League managers Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger sent him text messages following their victory over Egypt at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.
South Africa shocked the world as Thembinkhosi Lorch silenced the 75 000-strong crowd at the Cairo International Stadium to claim a historic 1-0 win in the last 16 encounter.
Bafana Bafana then failed to progress further as they went out to Nigeria in the quarter-finals.
Baxter, along with the rest of the Bafana Bafana team returned to South Africa on the weekend, and the Scotsman revealed what the two Premier League greats told him.
"I'm reading, in fact - someone has read it to me, 'to hell with Bafana' and 'let's boycott Bafana' and things like that," Baxter said, as quoted by Soccer Laduma.
"Before we came, just by the way, when we got on the plane in Addis Ababa, Ethiopian Airlines, they presented us with a cake, they made a big ceremony on the plane because they thought that we’ve been unbelievable," the Englishman went on to say.
"Jose Mourinho sent a text, saying that this was a performance that you and the boys should be proud of, Arsene Wenger sends me a text saying that this is a non-African performance and he wasn't being derogatory.
"Out there, they think we were fantastic, but still we've got to read - lets boycott Bafana," he added.
Since his departure from Manchester United in December 2018, Mourinho has been sharing his football knowledge with various sporting platforms.
Meanwhile, Wenger has been without a job since leaving Arsenal at the end of the 2017/18 Premier League season.