South African football great Dr. Jomo Sono feels his former player Alton Meiring was denied an opportunity in football.
The former Jomo Cosmos and Mamelodi Sundowns striker has died following an alleged stabbing incident.
He passes on at the age of 48, coaching at the Gauteng-based Luso Africa.
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Despite his goalscoring capabilities, Meiring only had two caps with the national team Bafana Bafana.
"May his soul rest in peace, he joined us at the late stage of his career [aged 34]," Sono tells KickOff.
"But even though he was old, he was still a natural-born striker. He was on the same level as Benni McCarthy and Mark Williams.... Those are the kind of players you didn't need to coach how to score goals. They were just free-scoring.
"I was attracted to him by the fact that he was a goalscorer, even now, around the world, goalscorers are hard to find.
"And at that time when I signed him, I was looking for a goalscorer, and I did bring him to Cosmos, and he scored some interesting goals," he added.
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"He was born with an instinct of scoring goals, and he did score them. He was not a hard worker. You would not see him running all over the pitch, but he was deadly inside the 18 area.
"And he was skilful as well, very, very skilful. And he was a gentleman as well, he never gave us any problems at Swallows.
"We don't know why he didn't have many caps with Bafana Bafana, but maybe it's because coaches are different. They see players differently.
"I don't know why he struggled to make the national team but he was a good striker, a very, very good striker.
"He deserved more chance in football as a whole, not only at Bafana Bafana."