Sundowns on why South America is their gold mine

Over the last few seasons, Mamelodi Sundowns have made it a habit to recruit players from South America, with the likes of Mauricio Affonso from Uruguay, Erwin Saavedra from Bolivia, Gaston Sirino of Uruguay, just to name a few.

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The latest South American is attacker Marcelo Allende, who introduced himself with a bang in Downs’
3-0 DStv Premiership win over Stellenbosch, netting the third goal on Wednesday evening.

Sundowns co-head coach Rulani Mokwena has explained what attracts South Americans to the 12-time Premiership champions.

Selling point

“The selling point is that Sundowns is a big club, it is respected globally. It has a very good profile internationally, having won the Caf Champions League (in 2016) and the league titles,” said Mokwena.

“We have big players in the squad and those players want to play with other big players and that becomes a very important selling point.

“That is because of the work that we have done ever since Patrice Motsepe bought the club. The team has always been great in the transfer market, and now we see that the club can compete with other big clubs on the continent.

“That blessing comes with a huge responsibility because we need to make this time bigger and better,” he added.

Allende has not been a prolific goalscorer in his club career thus far. And even though he has already got off the mark for Sundowns, Mokwena pleads with the Downs faithful to be patient with the youngster.

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“We are excited, he is 23 years old. He comes from a different environment with a different style of play and the league is a little bit different and I pray for a lot of time and patience,” said Mokwena.

Patience

“He needs to get used to the culture of the club and the expectations and the way we do things here. He has great potential but he needs time for adaptation. We need to be very patient with the new players. Even with (Abubaker) Nassir.

“A huge compliment has to go to the club’s management for the recruitment for bringing a player like Allende to the club, it is not always easy because we are talking about a player who is a Chilean international.

“When you see what type of players play for that national team then you know how difficult it is to be in that team. That means you have to have a certain level from a technical perspective.”

Allende’s next chance to shine for Sundowns will come on Sunday when they take on SuperSport United in a Tshwane derby MTN8 quarterfinal.