Newly appointed Al Ahli Jedda coach Pitso Mosimane has employed an all-South African technical team, however, he has revealed why it is difficult to sign South African players at any of his clubs abroad.
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The fact that Mosimane's backroom staff consists of Musi Matlaba, Kabelo Rangoaga and Kyle Solomons shows the coach is a firm believer in homegrown talent.
Although on the playing front, the 58-year-old coach has found it challenging to lure his compatriots to his teams.
Percy Tau was the only South African player who Mosimane managed to sign during his two-year stint with Egyptian giants Al Ahly, and has blamed the inflated price tags of local players for this.
"If there is an opportunity in the next window and maybe in future, you can always look around and see what we can bring and it's always good to bring South African players into those spaces – but it's very difficult to bring South African players to that space in the Middle East because they need to adapt, the social life is different," Mosimane told journalists at his press conference in Sandton.
"The other thing also is if you need a player in Congo, Ghana, Nigeria or other places, its easy to do it when it comes to the finances, but the South African market is not an easy one, the teams expect a lot of money. That's the challenge. We have a lot of Zambians and Zimbabweans in the Premier League, why don't we have South Africans – because the transfers are very difficult," he said.
Mosimane says players are missing out on lucrative deals abroad because of the hefty price tags clubs have attached to them, which has seen players from other African regions profit in the process…
"You want to tell me we don't have the players? The transfers are big here. People speak [about] R30 million and R40 million and players don't move. That's why we don't have players in that space, and it also kills the national team.
"Maybe clubs ask for money that they think they should get and you can't argue that because everybody knows why he says a player is worth R30 million, but the challenge is, a player who is worth half moves to the same space and the South African player loses the opportunity to play in the Premier League," added the coach.
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"It's not easy to make transfers with South African players. I tried when I was at Al Ahly. That's the sad part about South African players, they're not gonna move to Europe easily, not because they don't have capacity, but maybe the country is strong in terms of social life and how much we pay," he explained.
Mosimane and his technical team are expected to jet out to Saudi Arabia to begin their challenge of getting Al Ahli back to the topflight.
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