Mamelodi Sundowns striker Abubeker Nasir Ahmed is ready to deliver on the expectations that the huge population of Ethiopia has on him as he sharpens up for his second season.
Nasir only managed to gather 14 appearances in his first season at Sundowns with a return of four goals.
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What was concerning was the fact that Nasir played 90 minutes just once which was against SuperSport United in September 2022 when he scored one of his four goals.
His appearance numbers also showed that he only started two games with the rest of his game time minutes coming off the bench.
What was encouraging is that whenever the lanky striker was in the match day squad, he was fielded but what matters most is that he missed 34 games in all competitions for The Brazilians in the 2022/23 season.
"This coming season he will reach his best because he has assessed himself from the past season and has improved vastly," says Fekade Mamo, the president of Ethiopian Coffee, the club that sold Nasir to Sundowns.
"The issue was his physical fitness, but he has now overcome that hurdle with all the work that he has been putting in through the first year at the club.
"In the new season, Abu will meet the demands of what is expected of him at Sundowns.
"The boy has the potential and just needs to stay fit.
"To survive in the South African league, you have to combine both physical fitness and tactical intelligence," says Mamo while providing details to why they chose to sell their star player to Sundowns.
"We didn't have any fixed price for Abu because we were not going around putting the player on sale.
"What happened is that as the player was doing well the offers started coming in and for us, we had to be smart in deciding which offer to take.
"We had offers from clubs in Egypt and Morocco, but we didn't accept those.
"Then when finally, the offer came from Sundowns in South Africa we accepted it because it was better than the other two at that time.
"For us as a club, we eventually took the highest offer.
"Another matter at hand was that through our previous experiences players that had gone to Egypt and Yemen had not done well with their careers.
"We had to advice the player about this, and he agreed with us.
"With us, the plan was always that if he goes to South Africa and performs well there then he could then proceed to Europe.
"South Africa is a springboard for Abu, and he was convinced that this would be the case for him because the plan is to end up in Europe.
"The national team also needs him in top shape," says Mamo.
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