BENNI MCCARTHY

The former South Africa striker picks a side comprising club-mates from a career that took him to the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal and England

EDWIN VAN DER SAR “I arrived at Ajax in 1997 as a teenager and he was already a senior statesman in the team. He had the finest footwork of any keeper I’d ever seen and was as good as an outfield player. He took me under his wing – each day after training we would practise for 30 minutes, doing one-on-one drills where he’d work on his shot-stopping and I honed my finishing. He used to call me and say: ‘Benni, let’s take 30 footballs and do two repetitions.’ He wanted me to test him – in order to work on his agility – but he wanted me to improve my striking prowess as well.”

DECO “When I first went to Porto, on loan from Celta Vigo, he was entrenched in the first team. He impressed me in training with his technical ability and was one of the most complete players I came across in my career. The things he could do with a ball were incredible. We became good friends, helped each other’s game and were a formidable partnership. He aided my career and I helped him realise his dream of playing for Barcelona. I knew Porto wouldn’t be his final destination.”

ROQUE SANTA CRUZ “I was in awe of him when he was at Bayern Munich, but we became as thick as thieves at Blackburn because we spoke Spanish and formed a tight relationship on and off the field. We would regularly challenge each other after training and had goalscoring competitions between ourselves to decide who was the most lethal finisher. He was one of the best headers of a ball that I have ever seen.”