Shakes Mashaba has another rant about overseas-based players

Former Bafana Bafana head coach Shakes Mashaba sounds annoyed by the constant comparison of foreign-based players versus home grown talent, continuing to insist that he does not see much of a difference between the two sets of players.

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Bafana coach Molefi Ntseki’s team’s selection criteria were questioned when he left out Europe-based Bongani Zungu last time out in international friendlies against Zambia and Namibia. However, Zungu has been called up for back-to-back Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Sao Tome in Durban.

“We have got a tendency of selecting foreign-based players ahead of locals. I don’t quite understand why. We need to treat them equally. How many games do they [foreign-based players] play in a season? Some of them play one game the whole season,” Mashaba told Phakaaathi.

“It doesn’t mean that you are better than the players who are at home when you are playing overseas. Look at Percy Tau, at home when he was playing for Sundowns, he excelled, he was fireworks. You look at the game that we played against Zambia, without him we wouldn’t have scored a goal.

“When he goes abroad, he becomes a shadow of what we are used to seeing when he used to play at home. There is not much difference between local-based players and foreign-based players, the only difference is how do you bring them together and make them jell and make them respect each other and make sure that they play for one another,” he added.

Mashaba went on to advise Ntseki to call-up players who have got some “determination” and warned the national team against underestimating opponents.

“We have to always make sure that the players who we bring into the team are not only names but people who have something to offer to the team. We need to have players with big hearts and determination, and players who want to win for the nation.

“We watched the two games last time around, there is not much to say. We should have beaten Namibia by two or three goals. Country’s like Zambia and Namibia are not country’s to take lightly because the kind of players who they have there are good. In the last couple of years, players who play in those countries have been playing in South Africa and they have been doing well, and that tells you a lot, they are not pushovers.”

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