Mamelodi Sundowns Sporting Director Flemming Berg has revealed the club's foreign recruitment strategy that is seemingly ahead of rivals Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs.
Sundowns have raised their level of scouting and recruitment in recent years, especially since Berg was appointed in April 2022, with the acquisition of foreign players such as Marcelo Allende, Matias Esquivel, Lucas Ribeiro Costa and recently Arthur Sales, who cost the club close to R200 million in total.
Just the four players.
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Ribeiro has since emerged as head and shoulders above the rest, not only at Chloorkop but across the entire league, and it has since emerged that Masandawana do not spend such money for the sake of it.
Rivals Pirates and Chiefs have been left scrambling for players around the continent after the former signed Gilberto, while Amakhosi brought in the likes of Inacio Miguel in the previous transfer window.
Gilberto has struggled to adapt, while the jury is still out on whether Miguel is good enough for the league after collecting six yellow cards in six matches.
According to Berg, the reason why Sundowns will always have top quality foreign players hitting the ground running and eliminating the possibility of a player not adapting is around where they do buy players from.
"We try to get players from leagues that are either on the same level or higher level than us, because the adaptation would be faster," Berg said at the Business of Football Network.
"[The player] would not necessarily have to learn first to be able to play. We don't have time for that, we're Sundowns! We don't have time! We need to be able to win tomorrow, we need to win the [CAF] Champions League and so on.
"The way we define the level of leagues is very important for us. That's why you will rarely see us bringing a player directly from, let's say, Cameroon, because if he comes from there, he's weaker than us. So, even if a player is a star there, he will struggle with us from day one and we don't have time!," he insisted.
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In recent seasons, Bucs signed the likes of Cameroonian Marou Souaibou and Austin Muwowo from Zambia, who were rated highly in their native leagues but struggled to adapt to the PSL.
Chiefs have in recent years also signed players such as Bonfils-Caleb Bimenyimana, Anthony Akumu and Lazarous Kambole, who could not ultimately meet the grade.