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Bradley Cross

South Africa · the desk

Defence, South Africa

Sourced facts, dated and on the record. Squad membership, and his club when a source names one. Nothing invented; we don’t make players up.

At a glance

  • age

    24

    sourced with the squad

  • position

    Defence

    South Africa

  • our board

    #1362

    of 1424 rated players

  • folded so far

    1759′

    23 appearances

Sourced

squad
South Africa · Defencefootball-data.org · 2026-06-29

Sourced context, nothing more. It never touches a call.

Our rating · the working

the board →

1525 ±45

his quality rating: club, age and measured output. The board orders by this plus his World Cup form, less a discount for how much we can measure him.

How the number is builtopenclose

1578 full roster Elo (+53 from national-team results)

the ± is how settled the number is, more minutes, tighter band

Tier 2, lineups + results, how rich the evidence is, not just how much

potential ~1592 ±46 a projection, not a measurement: room left on the defence age curve

Where he starts (his team’s strength, we refuse to invent what we haven’t measured) plus two fixed nudges make the quality rating above; the last line is what national-team results have added since, taking it to his full roster Elo.

starts at South Africa's strengththe fair club-over-national anchor, every player's starting point
1540
age curve at 24 (defences' curve)measured from the open archive by our own study (defenders: the published literature's shape), never fitted to our calls
-15
individual skill termour club xG models haven't seen enough of him for a confident read, so nothing is added, never guessed
+0
quality rating · club, age + measured output
1525
form: national-team results, 23 appearances1759 minutes, weighted by margin, surprise and his match stats, but shared across the XI
+53
full roster Elo · with results
1578

A forward-only shadow signal, as of 2026-05-29. The skill term comes from our own xG models over the open archive; the rest is earned, recorded per appearance, auditable, never back-filled. It never moves a live call.

The notebook

The lines a beat writer keeps, except every one of ours is read off the ledger above, auditable to the night. Nothing invented.

  • standing

    #1362 of 1424 rated players on our board.

  • vs his seed

    The folded nights have added +53 to the number he seeded with, he has outplayed his own prior.

What he’d cost · our estimate

We don’t price him yet. Our fee model leans on the level he plays at, and no trusted source has given us his club’s strength. We’d rather show nothing than a number we don’t trust.

The fee record · sourced

  • 2024-09-03Golden Arrows → Kaizer Chiefsundisclosed
  • 2024-09-01Golden Arrows → Kaizer Chiefsundisclosed
  • 2023-07-01Maritzburg Utd → Golden Arrowsundisclosed

Reported moves, dated and attributed (api-football.com), news facts, not a valuation site’s estimates. It never touches a call.

In our coverage · South Africa’s record

  • v Canada0–1Called it
  • v South Korea1–0Missed it
  • at Czech Republic1–1Missed it
  • at Mexico2–0Called it

The newsroom’s calls on South Africa. Team-level, never dressed up as a player stat.

Squad · sourced