Why Manchester United boss might have found McCarthy a perfect fit

Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag made a bold decision to name Bafana Bafana all-time leading scorer Benni McCarthy as his first-team coach in what is the South African’s big leap in his relatively young coaching career. FARPost looks at some reasons that might have influenced the United manager’s choice of the former Blackburn United star.

Strong connections

You can have all the potential as a player and a coach in this world, but while what you know matters, who you also know even matters more. In this regard, McCarthy ticks the boxes. Erik ten Hag has some connection with the former Orlando Pirates striker as the two played in the same Eredivisie league at the turn of the century. Ten Hag was heading towards the twilight of his career as a defender for FC Twente, while McCarthy was launching his career in Europe at Ajax Amsterdam in 1998. Surely, Benni knows the Dutch football template that his boss is using to rebuild United.

Multilingual

They say football has a universal language, but after all is said and done, you need a first-team coach who can motivate players by speaking to them in their mother tongues for the sake of clarity.  It is for this reason that most top coaches are proficient in more than one international language. Even Pep Guardiola had to learn German before he managed Bayern Munich.

Therefore, the former Porto star is a perfect fit for the United job as he is proficient in universal languages such as Portuguese, Spanish, and English, thanks to his successful career that took him from Holland, Portugal, England and Spain.

Big profile

If you are to manage superstars such as Cristiano Ronaldo, you need some bit of a big profile, whether as a coach or a player. The former AmaZulu mentor has played football at the highest-level rubbing shoulders with greats such as Sunday Oliseh and Edwin van der Sar in his career, winning the Champions League under Jose Mourinho at Porto and even coming so close to the Premier League Golden Boot award when he finished ahead of CR7 while at Blackburn Rovers.

As a coach, he won a trophy with Cape Town City and bagged the Coach of the Year Award following his exploits at AmaZulu, where he took to a second-place finish and guided them to the CAF Champions League group stages. Both feats were firsts in the club’s 90-year history.

Strong character

McCarthy is not the sort that would step on Carrington training grounds with his head hanging down, feeling intimidated by the sights and sounds of superstars or being overwhelmed by the weight of responsibility. He will go there chest out, not afraid to tell Marcus Rashford that he is a serial winner with proven pedigree in Africa, Spain, Holland and England.

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