Cassius Mailula was fighting a losing battle in his attempts to play ahead of the Italian pair of Lorenzo Insigne and Federico Bernardeschi at Toronto FC after joining the MLS club last year.
Mailula left for Toronto after playing just a single season in the first team at Mamelodi Sundowns, during which he scored 15 goals in all competitions.
READ: No Khune and no keeper worries for Chiefs
His time in North America didn't turn into joy as he only played 17 minutes in the two appearances that he managed in the MLS.
He was then mostly as an unused substitute for the other 24 games, just like he didn't get minutes in the three games the club played in the League Cups.
Even with the MLS Next Pro League, he only played once with his input getting better in the Canadian Championship, where he scored twice (plus one assist) in three appearances.
In the end, six appearances wasn't what the 23-year-old desired and when Rulani Mokwena came calling for him to join him on loan at Wydad Casablanca, it just made perfect sense.
"The problem was that when Cassius came here, there were two Italians (Lorenzo Insigne and Federico Bernardeschi) playing up front," points former University of Pretoria and Maritzburg United goalkeeper Dominic Sithole, who now lives in Canada, where he is also involved in football.
"He was always going to play second fiddle to them, so they realised that they better send him to the reserve league (MLS Next Pro) and he didn't like that idea.
"So, it became a bit of a problem for him, which is why he then wanted to go out on loan.
"He tried moving to other MLS teams, but it didn't work out and at one time they even offered that he goes to another Canadian Premier League team, and he didn't want that.
"That is when the move to Morocco came up and he pushed for it to happen.
"The relationship between him and Toronto wasn't so healthy by then because he felt like he deserved to play, but they didn't want to give him the game-time he wanted because they preferred the experienced pair.
"The thing about the MLS is that when they get these guys from Europe, their contracts state that they have to play because they are paying them a lot of money, so they have to play.
"So, that was the challenge that Cassius faced as he was never going to get game-time and had to settle for playing in the local games, which he wasn't happy about.
"He was never going to get any game-time here for now because they saw him as a future player.
READ: Pending decisions to make for Sundowns
"I had a chat with one of their coaches at one of the coaching seminars and he told me that they were not going to use him now because they wanted him to develop.
"He needed to learn the culture as well," details Sithole, who also played for African Warriors.