Manqoba Mngqithi says the criticism in Chile about Marcelo Allende joining Mamelodi Sundowns could be taken positively for the future.
Allende, who made his senior international debut for his country in December under former Al Ahly boss Martin Lasarte was questioned for his move to South Africa from Uruguayan side Montevideo City Torque this window.
With the diminutive midfielder previously spending time with Arsenal and touted for several moves to Europe, the coup for Sundowns was described as a step backwards for his career in his local media.
Lasarte himself questioned the move, saying it may have been financially driven – but the coach who was famously on the receiving end of a 5-0 thumping by the Tshwane giants in the CAF Champions League – admitted Sundowns is a good club.
But Mngqithi feels it’s not about scoffing over the standards of the DStv Premiership, but rather complaining about the unknown, which is something common among our own supporters.
“To be honest I wouldn’t think it’s about looking down at our standards but it’s the expectations they have about their player,” he said recently at Chloorkop.
“Remember the boy is playing for the senior national team of Chile at that team is regularly in the World Cup and this boy was in England with Arsenal, there were possibilities to go to Italy and all these other big leagues.
“You also have your South African players going to Belgium, all these other leagues and when he goes to a league that you don’t know, you will always say, ‘where is he? In Kosovo? Where is that?’ You will have those question marks.
“But those question marks sometimes have got a positive spin on it because then they start to follow your football. Then when they start to follow your football, they start to realise there’s another league that should be given the respect it requires and that league is the South African league.”
When moving towards the positive aspects as Allende followed the likes of Jorge Acuna to represent the club, he stated it could start brewing interest in his home country and they keep track of the precocious talent during his stay – as he remains likely to be part of the national team squad.
“Just look at it from a positive side. How many Chileans have come to South Africa and if you never had a Chilean player, why would they think big of South African football when they’ve never had an encounter of what South African football is about,” he continued.
“But now that Marcelo is here and they are looking at Sundowns every day, don’t you think it may have a positive spin on the league? Unlike if they never showed any negativity towards our league.
“For me, that would have been ignored because they’ve never been close to what is happening in South African football and one of their key players is coming to this league they don’t know about.
“Now after having an interest in what is happening in South Africa, let’s check maybe there are Chilean players who come to South Africa, are they not going to have a lot of positive things to say about South African football once they see it very closely and they are able to follow it.
“Sometimes when you don’t know [much] about a particular league, you will always have question marks, up until you here ‘hey Kosovo has qualified for the World Cup’ – then you say ‘haibo, this is a serious team of country’ – this is what happens.
“Even this Marcelo thing I take it very positively because now they have a little bit more interest in our league to keep Marcelo in their team. Maybe we also have to try and bring their national team to see what South African football is all about.
“And that becomes a very positive spin and becomes one more country that will give us more millions to watch our football and that for me is very positive.”
The 23-year-old who made his first start for the club in the 2-1 Tshwane Derby defeat at the hands of SuperSport United last week, scored twice in his first two substitute appearances for Masandawana.
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