With most Orlando Pirates supporters urging Relebohile Mofokeng to move to a bigger club in Europe, a top agent has expressed his reservations.
There is ongoing debate on whether Mofokeng is good enough to go straight into one of top leagues around the world, especially after he was linked with Barcelona B.
The recent trajectory of his peer Shandre Campbell, who made the UEFA Champions League squad for Club Brugge against Aston Villa this week, could offer lessons that success in Europe is not necessarily about breaking through with the bigger teams.
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In June last year, Campbell joined Club Brugge's reserve side NXT, which plays in the Second Division in Belgium, before getting the opportunity with the first team later on.
"You want the player to at least feel part of the team and that's why the path of Shandre was carefully planned, not just by Brugge, us, but by long discussions with Shandre's family and with his former club SuperSport United," Campbell's agent Mike Makaab, CEO of Prosport International, opened up exclusively to KickOff.com.
"It's about the process, as opposed to where you're going, and don't forget Club Brugge are current Belgian champions. They are not a small Football Club. But we've had similar success with Ousmane Diomande, who plays for Sporting Lisbon at the age of 20, he has attracted interest worldwide from all the clubs.
"(Ousmane) Diao, the Senegalese who now plays for the Danish champions FC Midtjylland, he's 20. Abdoulaye Faye, who plays for Hacken, one of the the top teams in Sweden, and he's 20. So, these are projects Mike Junior and Prosport global take a lot of care, in time and involving themselves in it," he added.
"It's not about: 'Ah, we need to send a player on trial'. That's the old-fashioned way of operating in football and quite honestly, it doesn't work. Not in modern football. You have to be super fortunate to send a player on trial and for him to be successful.
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"It's more of a plan. Don't forget, Shandre never went on trial. It's more about planning for these things than getting excited about a player moving to Europe," concluded the former Pirates coach.
Campbell was on the bench in Brugge's 3-1 loss to Aston Villa in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League Last 16 on Tuesday.