Mamelodi Sundowns' recruitment in the direction of Latin America has come with pleasant returns for Marcelo Allende as he moves towards completing three solid years at Chloorkop.
Allende joined Sundowns from Uruguayan club Montevideo City Torque in a transfer which raised eyebrows.
The transfer fee was pegged at USD3 million (then approx. R51 million).
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For the champions, they were convinced about their decision on the lad who had captained Chile's U20 national team and earned one senior cap.
While he has not been able to add on to that single senior cap for La Roja, Allende has been worth it for all his time at Sundowns.
The little maestro needed no settling in scoring twice in his first two matches, before going on to pile up 33 appearances in his first season.
He was a league winner.
His second season came with 44 matches played plus winners' medals in the domestic league and the African Football League.
This term, he has played 33, maintaining his appearance consistency levels, which come by virtue of not being injury prone like plenty of the Latin Americans that have made their way to the PSL through the years .
In three years, Allende has played 110 and could be sitting on an average of 40 appearances per season by the time the bell rings to end this campaign.
There is little to complain about with the quality that the 25-year-old has brought to South Africa, though he has been ignored back home.
"It is complicated for Allende," fellow Chilean Jorge 'Kike' Acuna, who spent two years at Sundowns between 2007-09, told this website recently.
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"What happens is that here they don't know anything about Sundowns, they don't know what Allende is doing.
"So, it is difficult for him to be called up.
"When I went to Sundowns, I stopped being considered for the Chilean national team," said Acuna.