Celebrated South African coach Pitso Mosimane has explained why top teams in Europe don’t fancy players from South Africa like that of Nigeria despite their talent, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
South Africa have been having a very good run in the world cup qualifiers, following up on their impressive display at the AFCON where they finished as second runners up to clinch the bronze, their best ever finish since 1998 when they went all the way to the final before losing 0-2 to Egypt.
Despite that there is still a scarcity of interest in their player from top teams in Europe, which Pitso one of Africa’s most respected and accomplished coach tried to explain in an interview with a radio station in South Africa.
“It is a concern for me; I was banking on Lyle Foster and now look what happened, I was banking on Percy in the Premier League, the same way Pienaar, Benni McCarthy, and Shaun Bartlett represented us, but we don’t have anybody now and it’s not nice,” the 59-year-old told Radio2000.
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“We need to have the right product and the right players. Did you hear what John Barnes said about South African players? He said that we have players but we don’t easily have the right type of player for the English Premier League but West Africa has that type of player for the Premier League,” Mosimane continued.
“Watch the Nigeria team play South Africa, where is that flair or whatever? But those guys are playing for AC Milan and Napoli. Why is that?
“It’s because you must have the right product for the right market. Maybe we have the right product for the Kasi flavour which is good.
“I don’t think there’s anybody who can beat us if there was a football tournament about that. We have the technique and skills but if you want the product to play at the World Cup maybe it’s [Evidence] Makgopa. Maybe he’s that kind of a player,” he concluded.
Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman
