Ask any footballer playing football in South Africa what their dream is ....one answer monotonously comes up! “I see my myself playing in Europe.”
Now don’t get me wrong there is nothing in our players wanting to play their football overseas, I mean Europe is the dream destination of many African footballers but it what our players fail to understand is that, it is not every league in Europe that is ideal to further one’s career, and that is what our players will need to learn.
So many of our players have been swallowed up by a continent that has been portrayed as the land of milk and honey to so many footballers from our country and the rest of Africa. Stanton “Stiga” Fredericks left Kaizer Chiefs at the peak of his powers for Russian outfit FC Moscow and was never heard of again. The well travelled Nkosinathi Nhleko is another victim of the promises of European glory. Promising young footballer Stanton Lewis has disappeared from the face of the earth after an unsuccessful stint at Ajax Amsterdam.
South African players need to taught that whilst Europe has the grandest stages of them for footballers to strive, it can also be an abyss for those not good enough!