Sundowns player exodus – who’s leaving, who’s staying?  

One might have lost count of how many times Masandawana has opened their cheque book to lure Premier Soccer League stars to Chloorkop, as players like Kermit Erasmus, Gift Motupa, Peter Shalulile, Ricardo Goss, just to name a few, have all flocked in the home of the capital city-based campaigners.

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Downs’ coaching trinity of co-heads Manqoba Mngqithi and their assistant Steve Komphela have about 50 players at their disposal and have vowed to trim down the squad to a workable number as there are “too many players” at training, seemingly giving their mentors a headache.

Players such as Aubrey Ngoma, Malebogo Modise, Sammy Seabi and Nicholus Lukhubeni have all been shipped out on loan while Ali Meza and Lucky Mohomi have joined Maritzburg United and rival side SuperSport United respectively on permanent deals.

“We are looking into it very closely, but it would be premature of us to suggest the names at this stage because we have only had two weeks of preparations and we want to satisfy ourselves and make sure that we don’t lose a player who could help us and at the same time we don’t want to keep players here for too long and they end up not getting opportunities elsewhere,” said Mngqithi.

He continued: “We have got a very big squad at the moment so we have to make sure that we have a sizeable squad that we can be able to work with without too many disturbances. We are hopeful that in the next weeks, we will have the team that will remain with us because we definitely won’t be having the squad that we are having because there are too many players in training.”

Below we pick five players who are most likely to be deemed surplus to requirements and could be sent out on loan or join other teams on permanent deals:

Bangaly Soumahoro – The big Ivorian international defender spent the whole of 2018/19 in the casualty room and made only one appearance the whole of last season – a one-minute cameo against Golden Arrows in August. Downs won the treble and did not miss him a single bit, it would be a surprise if they decide to keep him at the club given the abundance of central defenders.

Promise Mkhuma – This youngster has shown some potential to become a key player in Sundowns’ set-up but the time for that is not now. There are a lot of senior players vying for his position and him being a 20-year-old, he is likely to follow in the footsteps of Percy Tau, Keletso Makgalwa, Motjeka Madisha and Themba Zwane who were sent out on loan in their infant stages to cut their teeth elsewhere before becoming regulars at Downs.

Khuliso Mudau – The 25-year-old could be seen as a long-time successor of captain Hlompho Kekana but with the skipper still going strong at 35, and Andille Jali playing at his prime best, Rivaldo Coetzee is the trusted watchdog of the back-four, and George Maluleka looking to break into the team while Tiyani Mabunda is waiting on the wings – Mudau will have very slim chances of kicking a ball if he were to stay.

Reyaad Pieterse – Known as the golden second choice goalkeeper, Pieterse’s time at Downs seems to be up. When the club acquired his services back in 2018, it was at the back of the departure of Brimah Razak and Downs went for a goalie who would not mind sitting on the bench or up in the stands, but brings an A-game whenever called upon. Now with the introduction of Ricardo Goss to the fray and Denis Onyango expected to remain the club’s number one and Kennedy Mweene being the trusted extra pair of hands, Pieterse could be the casualty in the goalkeeping department.

Mauricio Affonso – Sundowns have been patient with their lanky marksman but every time he kicks a ball for a game or two, he gets injured. Affonso’s goal ratio is decent. He scored three in three matches in the Telkom Knockout, two in the final. He banged in two goals in four Caf Champions League games and just one goal out of his six league games. The Uruguayan’s injuries could be his downfall and he could be shown the door if players like Shalulie and Motupa rain in the net with goals.

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