Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos is baffled that Mamelodi Sundowns asked for €5 million (R97 million) for midfielder Teboho Mokoena.
Mokoena was among the standout players as South Africa finished third at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations and after his impressive displays, he attracted interest from clubs overseas.
However, Sundowns put a hefty price tag on him and the interested clubs, believed to be from Europe, walked away, seeing the midfielder remain at Chloorkop.
Now, Broos has questioned the wisdom of putting such a high price on the player when a move abroad would have been beneficial to him and the national team.
Why does Broos feel Mokoena was overpriced?
“Mokoena played a very good AFCON; there was interest [from overseas],” Broos said on Thursday after announcing his final squad for this month’s 2025 AFCON qualifiers against Congo.
“But then now, if it is true they [Sundowns] asked for €5 million for him, nobody, nobody will pay €5 million for Mokoena, nobody, why? Because he is only … excuse me that I’m expressing myself like this, he is only a South African footballer.”
The veteran tactician feels South Africa are lagging behind their continental counterparts because they do not have many players playing in top leagues in Europe, something that can be changed if opportunities that arise are utilised.
The midfielder is in a difficult position at Sundowns
“We don’t have any history of South African footballers playing abroad for a long time now,” added Broos.
“You see, in other countries, such as Senegal, Morocco, and Ivory Coast, they all have players abroad, but we don’t anymore, so we need this. We can achieve that by having good results with the national team because you see what happens after AFCON, suddenly there was interest, but we are on a good way, but we are still not there where we want to be.”
Sundowns are believed to have put the hefty fee on Mokoena’s head to fend off interest as they did not want to sell one of their key players but the midfielder currently faces a battle to win his place back in the team after being overlooked in the last five matches by coach Manqoba Mngqithi.
