Young Juventus defender Joel Untersee has committed his international future to South Africa, choosing the country of his birth over Switzerland, whom he has represented at various youth levels. The news was announced by Bafana coach Stuart Baxter. Untersee, 24, was born in Johannesburg and is currently on loan at Serie B side Empoli from Juventus. If he does play for South Africa, he will join the likes of Pierre Issa, Davide Somma, Hans Vonk and others in the likes of players born in the Republic, but who primarily learnt and plied their trade abroad.
Baxter had also targetted Panagiotis Retsos, the young Greek defender, who like Untersee, was also born in Johannesburg. However the Leverkusen player was capped by Greece earlier this season which put paid to Baxter’s hopes of getting him into the Bafana setup.
Untersee is primarily a right back, but has also been employed on the right side of midfield by Empoli in the current 2017/18 season.