Stellies to put hefty price tag on reported Sundowns target

Stellenbosch FC coach Steve Barker has once again commented on reports linking his star player Jayden Adams with a move to Mamelodi Sundowns.

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Adams has been heavily linked with a move to the DStv Premiership champions in recent months.

And speaking after his side’s 1-0 loss to Sundowns last Saturday, Barker said the Brazilians must be prepared to pay a lot of money if they are to sign Adams.

“The better you become as a football club, winning cups and being second and players making the Bafana squad, their value goes from here to there [pointing down and up]. So if clubs want to come and look for our players, I don’t think it’s going to be as easy as it was in the past,” said Barker in a video posted by Stellies analyst Brendon Fourie on X.

“Number one from the economic and financial point of view. And if you have players sitting on the bench at Sundowns that cost R40-million, what reasons for Jayden not to cost that much or maybe more. If Sundowns do [submit an offer], then they will have to dig deep, that’s the one thing.”

Barker added that he would advise the Bafana Bafana midfielder not to consider a move to Sundowns, but to move to Europe instead.  

“The second thing is that Jayden has an ambition to play in Europe and is at the age where going to Europe would be better in his interest and I would advise him to rather consider that than local. You don’t want him to end up going to Sundowns and ending up playing 13, 14 league matches in a season,” added Barker.

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“So it’s going to be more difficult for teams and because the stock of the players is a bit higher and far more valuable. They [Sundowns] are playing Africa and we weren’t playing in Africa before and weren’t maybe challenging enough to win trophies and now we’ve won a trophy. We’re playing Africa so it’s more difficult for them to say, ‘we want this one, that one’. It will be difficult and we are confident that we can retain our squad. There may be a single [player] or a situation that we may have to consider, but right now there are no offers and no one is for sale,” concluded the Stellies coach.

Adams is the product of the Stellies development academy.