OPINION: If Ten Haag trusts Benni McCarthy, so should we

Benni McCarthy’s return to the English Premier League as a striker coach at Manchester United is wonderful news, for both McCarthy and for those who are craving South African representation in one of the top two leagues in the world (Spain’s La Liga is the other).

It is highly unlikely that there will be a South African playing for an EPL side in the upcoming 2022/23 season – Southampton’s Kegs Chauke has gone on loan to Exeter City in League One, while Khanya Leshabela of Leicester City has been loaned to League Two’s Crewe Alexandra.

But the sight of McCarthy on the sidelines with United, tasked with “the positioning and attacking”, according to United head coach Erik Ten Hag, should give encouragement to all those budding Mzansi coaches that have aspirations for a career beyond these shores.

Pitso Mosimane has already carried the South African flag proudly at Egyptian giants Al- Ahly, and if McCarthy can help revive United, it will be another feather in the cap for South African coaches.

The former Ajax Amsterdam (perhaps his link to Ten Hag), Celta Vigo, FC Porto and Blackburn Rovers striker has cut his coaching teeth, to a large extent, in the DStv Premiership, doing well in head coaching roles at Cape Town City and AmaZulu, even if both stints came to a rather abrupt end.

He has also earned his stripes, literally, in the sense that he has his Uefa Pro License, and the 44-year-old will now get to test his credentials alongside some of the elite players in the global game.

Cristiano Ronaldo, assuming that he stays at United, Anthony Martial, Marcus Rashford, Bruno Fernandes, Cristian Eriksen and Jadon Sancho are just some of the attacking players McCarthy will be working with, with the challenge to turn them into a coherent force, capable of challenging for honours in the coming season.

McCarthy is used to being in this kind of top-level competitive environment, of course, having won the Uefa Champions League with Jose Mourinho at FC Porto, and having starred at Blackburn Rovers in the English Premier League.

And Ten Hag is widely regarded as one of the best head coaches in the game at the moment, so if he believes in Benni, frankly so should we.

What one does hope is that McCarthy’s coaching wiles are not lost forever to the South African game.
In some ways, his move to United recalls Carlos Queiroz, who was sacked by Bafana Bafana in 2002, and while Bafana have gone nowhere since, he has had a coaching career that took him to an assistant coach position at Manchester United, and head coaching jobs at Real Madrid, Portugal, Colombia, Iran and Egypt.

McCarthy was never appointed Bafana head coach, but the South African Football Association were certainly interested in him, before Hugo Broos ultimately took the job.