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Renowned South African coach Pitso Mosimane explained why Nigeria had big European football stars and his country did not.
South African coach Pitso Mosimane expressed his concern over the low number of players from his countries plying their trade in top European leagues, and he explained why Nigeria has had huge success in that regard.
Mosimane is one of the top coaches in the continent, having won three CAF Champions League titles with two different clubs. The Abha United coach has been constantly linked with the Super Eagles job and has regularly spoken glowingly of Nigerian players.
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What Mosimane said
Speaking in an interview, the 59-year-old referenced the situation of Lyle Foster, who got relegated with Burnley, as the continuation of a worrying trend of South African players struggling to make it in the big leagues.
He explained that South Africa once had healthy representation in the top leagues with the likes of Steven Pienaar and Benni McCarthy but now the numbers are few and far between. Mosimane believes that South Africa no longer produce players that match the market demands of European clubs.
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“Look, it is a concern for me and I was banking on Lyle Foster and now look what happened (Burnley have been relegated to the Championship),” Mosimane said as per The Citizen.
“I was banking on Percy in the Premier League, the same way (Steven) Pienaar, Benni McCarthy, and Shaun Bartlett represented us, but we don’t have anybody now and it’s not nice.
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“We need to have the right product and the right players. Did you hear what John Barnes said about South African players? He said that we have players but we don’t easily have the right type of player for the English Premier League but West Africa has that type of player for the Premier League.”
Meanwhile, Mosimane revealed in an interview that Super Eagles legend J.J. Okocha pushed for him to get the Nigerian head coach job, but the move never materialised.
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