When Gaston Sirino arrived at Mamelodi Sundowns in January 2018, his unveiling along with Siyabonga Zulu and Jeremy Brockie was braced by the presence of Patrice Motsepe.
It was just days after Leonardo Castro had left for Kaizer Chiefs leaving Ricardo Nascimento as the only other South American at the club.
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Besides Themba Zwane and Denis Onyango, none of the players that Sirino found at Chloorkop are still at the club as players.
Sirino turned 27 a month after arriving before going on to end the season as a league champion just like he had been one at Bolivar where he had played prior to making the switch to the PSL.
This week Sirino turned 33 two days after scoring his first hat-trick and being named man of the match in the 6-1 demolition of second tier league club La Masia in the Nedbank Cup.
No better reward for your birthday week as a footballer.
With what has happened this week, Sirino would have gone into reflection about his time at Sundowns where he has been a league champion for all the years that he has spent with a count of six titles to date with the seventh loading.
From his debut against Platinum Stars (January 20, 2018) when he came on as a substitute to the first match that he started against Free State Stars a month later when he provided an assist.
Then came the first goal he scored in April of the same year in the Nedbank semi-finals defeat to Maritzburg United on a day when he was also red carded.
The next season became a joyous ride after being joined by fellow Spanish speakers Jose Ali Meza and Emiliano Tade as he scored eight plus 15 assists but again got sent off against Maritzburg.
Sirino improved his numbers to 13 goals and 10 in the next season (2019/20) propelling him to one of the best players in the domestic game.
"In the beginning the language factor was a battle, a real struggle.
"What matters most is that I'm happy here and I must keep on improving my game and growing," he told this publication midway through that season.
At the back of that season, contract talks and transfer rumours to Egypt then started which snowballed into the possibility of better money in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
The next season his goal contribution went down to eight after Pitso Mosimane left with the drop continuing into the 2021/22 season just like it did last season, but he has already improved this term.
Sirino has moved up to 41 goals and 44 assists through his time at Sundowns where he now plays as a non-foreign player after acquiring South African permanent residence.
While arguments will linger about whether he should ever be selected for Bafana Bafana now that he is eligible what he keeps doing at Sundowns remains important as the conductor of the Spanish orchestra influence at the club.
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Having never played for Uruguay – who are two-time World champions – Sirino is eligible for Bafana and has made open his interests should he get the call-up.
At the 2022 World Cup, as many as 136 players represented countries other than the one where they were born.