Football agent Basia Michaels revealed that South Africa‘s Mbekezeli Mbokazi called her and offered support during the media storm caused by national team coach Hugo Broos’ comments over his move to Chicago Fire FC.

Broos’ description of Michaels as a ‘nice little woman who is his agent and thinks she knows football’ meant that she was caught in the crossfire of the Belgian’s displeasure over Mbokazi’s choice of club.

Broos later publicly apologised for his choice of words, but denied allegations of racism and sexism and, according to Michaels, the coach has not spoken to her privately.

An attorney by trade, she bought QT Sports eight years ago from Tim Sukazi, who is now the owner of TS Galaxy, and has no reservations confirming that Mbokazi’s move to Chicago Fire for around $3 million is to date the biggest she has handled.

Michaels told ESPN that Broos’ comments felt degrading to a reputation she has worked years to build.

She said: “What it does is: it does unfortunately trample on the work that I’ve done – not just the transaction with Mbokazi, but let’s call it the eight or nine years that I’ve been in this industry.

“You can’t take away from that, whether you agree with something or you don’t agree with it.

“It’s not the greatest feeling, but at the end of the day, everybody in this world is entitled to their own perception — but I’ve never had a single conversation with Hugo.”

FIFA-accredited agent and attorney Basia Michaels stands with her client, defender Mbekezeli Mbokazi, at his unveiling with Chicago Fire. Basia Michaels/Instagram

Michaels felt that while she had experienced sexism before, this was a unique experience due to the public platform on which it played out, without her being in the room to defend herself.

Even when given the opportunity to, Michaels initially opted to stay quiet publicly as she sought to preserve the focus on the AFCON – where South Africa were eventually eliminated in the last 16 in Morocco.

“The focus had to remain the focus and the focus was definitely AFCON and that was a lot more important than anything else,” she said.

Mbokazi has since said that it was difficult for him to deal with the constant scrutiny over Broos’ strong opinion that he should have gone to Europe rather than MLS.

Michaels praised Mbokazi’s resilience and strong performances during AFCON, even under a cloud: “That (responding on the pitch) is the best way to do it.

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“We had a conversation about it. It was actually quite lovely that he called me. He called me and asked: ‘Are you ok?’ I was like: ‘I’m fine. Are you ok?’ He was like: ‘Yeah.’… By then, the deal to Chicago Fire was done.

“We both knew that it wasn’t an MLS 2 transaction. We had spent about six days in Chicago. When we got to the facility and we did everything that we had done, there was no question that it was an eye-opening experience for both of us.

“This was a choice that he made. It’s not like we signed and then we went to Chicago. We did a full tour of Chicago start to finish, and then, he was like: ‘I’m going to stay.'”

The publicity over Mbokazi’s move — both positive and negative — came at a pivotal point in Michaels’ career as she attempts to establish herself in the international market.

She has often claimed that European clubs have a tendency to undervalue African players, but praised Chicago Fire’s attention to detail in their pursuit of Mbokazi.

She said: “The first conversation I had with them was not anything to do with money. It was the basics of how he’s going to live life day-to-day. When they could give me certain assurances and tell me that they were going to put certain things in place, it didn’t matter the system that they had.

“The system is great – it’s lovely. The U22 initiative has various different aspects that pertain to it, but for me, my focus was purely on the client that I have and how my client would benefit from certain requirements.”

Mbokazi started on his MLS debut in a 2-1 away defeat to Houston Dynamo, making a goal-line clearance and block in quick succession shortly before half-time.

He could make his home debut at Soldier Field against Montréal on Saturday, Feb. 28 as the Men in Red look to bounce back.