Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso has revealed that the club missed out on the opportunity to sign players from elsewhere on the Africa continent during the recently closed transfer window.
Speaking after his side’s 4-1 victory over Richards Bay on Saturday, Cardoso revealed that the club had its sights set on players based on the continent.
“Unfortunately, also, we could not conclude two or three [pieces of] business that we wanted,” he said.
“But it was not easy. The players that we tried, we could not buy this or buy that, we could not do it.”
“We knew what we needed, the quality that we needed to reinforce the team and we approached a couple of situations in Africa. Unfortunately, they were not possible to conclude and then we had to check market opportunities.”
Cardoso admitted that it is hard for Sundowns to compete with European clubs for the signings of African talents, as similarly to European clubs, Masandawana look at the continents’ top clubs for potential transfers.
“In Africa also, it’s not easy because to reinforce Sundowns, you must go on the best teams in Africa. Because also, African football is a lot scouted, a lot scouted, especially from Europe, as you know, a lot scouted. So it’s not easy for us, for example, to compete with the best clubs from Europe that come to pick the best talents, young talents, and take them to Europe very early. But we had a couple of targets.”
Despite the setbacks to Sundowns squad-building, Cardoso remains pleased with the signings that have been made, including Portuguese players Nuno Santos and Miguel Reisinho. He revealed that the club could bring another signing to the club from the Africa market in the January transfer window.
“But [what is] important now is that we got what we wanted. Of course, still we have one spot for a foreigner that we will leave for the market in January to see where in that moment the team will need to be reinforced. Let’s see if we’re going to use it or not. But we are very [watchful], not only to the South African market, but in general, the African market. And we have targets.”
