Benni McCarthy wants to be the youngest coach ever to bag the Absa Premiership trophy

Benedict Saul McCarthy, better known in football circles only as Benni, is a young coach with a big heart and huge ambition.

McCarthy has set his sights on the big cake, the R10 million in prize money that is at stake for the winners of the Absa Premiership together with the trophy.

“I will be lying to you if I say I don’t have ambitions to make history,” said McCarthy, the coach of Cape Town City but better known as The Citizens

“That’s the goal of every coach, player and a team manager or technical staff. I would not be a coach if I do not have ambitions nor would players be players if they had no ambitions.

“Like any other coach, I have eyes on the big one. I would like to make history as the youngest coach in our league with a little over one-and-half years of coaching experience to win the league.

“Wouldn’t that be wonderful,” McCarthy told North Eastern Tribune in an interview during the screening of the Liverpool versus Bayern Munich and FC Barcelona versus Lyon matches of the Uefa Champions League on 13 March.

McCarthy, who is Bafana’s all-time leading goal-scorer with 31 goals, has a somewhat temperamental personality as a coach, but meet him outside the game and you will find he has a big heart and a soft side too, including a love for people especially children.

“Children have a special place in my heart,” he said. “I always endeavour to translate that same love to my players as well, but business is what it is and a job is a job that must be done regardless. I get emotional at times not because it’s my nature but circumstances and ambitions to be successful push one over the limit.”

Besides his ambitions to capture the premiership, McCarthy, 41, born in Cape Town and married with one child, dreams of one day being coach of Bafana Bafana.

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