Benni McCarthy has clarified the situation on Orlando Pirates defender Bongani Sam contacting him about wanting to join at AmaZulu.
After Usuthu secured a historic CAF Champions League win over Horoya at Moses Mabhida Stadium on Friday night, McCarthy was posed the question about the alleged contact made by the Buccaneers left-back.
While he admitted that he got the question completely wrong when he was, in fact, queried about being linked with Bongani Zungu – he confirmed that Pirates flat out rejected their approach for Sam.
“Yes I’m a big fan of the young boy but I think there was a little bit of a miscommunication because the question was about Bongani Zungu and I was mistaken and thought I heard Bongani Sam,” McCarthy explained.
“I was interested in the player but Pirates made it clear that he wasn’t going anywhere, there’s nothing I can do when a player messages you that he wants to come and play for you and that. But you have to respect the club that he plays for. Of course, his agent is my agent so it’s going to land on my lap.”
The 24-year-old has been restricted to just five starts at the Soweto giants and McCarthy has questioned why they opted to reject their advances which he felt would have been mutually beneficial.
Sam is competing for a spot in the team with the likes of Innocent Maela and Paseka Mako, both of which are ahead of him in the pecking order.
“It doesn’t necessarily mean it will happen, but it will land on my lap if there’s any breaking news, I’ll be the first to know because I’m a very big fan of the player,” McCarthy continued.
“He’s not getting game time so I just thought, you know what we can do them a favour, we can play the boy and he adds value to our squad and gains momentum and returns to Pirates next season in better condition.
“I looked at it as a win-win situation but they weren’t ready to part ways with the player which I completely understand if you ruin the players’ career somewhat but instead of him going somewhere else and playing and be happy.
“They don’t want that, they are in their free right to do whatever it is they want. We respect it that and that was the thing, but I thought it was Bongani Sam, but in fact, it was about Bongani Zungu.
“I didn’t have any contact or anything, it was just a rumour, so I didn’t know about it so it was a miscommunication.”
