Getting deal no easy task
Insiders explain PSL transfer circus
The transfer of a player from club to club is a process that is easier said than done.
With the January transfer window in full swing, football fans are desperate to find out who’s joining their respective clubs.
The fans get excited on hearing that a specific player could be moving to their club, only to be left disappointed when a deal falls through.
But this, according to people in the know, is a difficult process.
Senzo Mazingisa, who was until recently the football manager at Platinum Stars, has overseen many transfers in his career.
“It depends on the structure of the club. I’ve been to different clubs in my career [including Orlando Pirates] and there are certain processes that must happen before a transfer can take place,” Mazingisa told Sowetan yesterday.
“In other clubs, there are key people who are involved before a transfer can take place; the head coach, CEO and the directors. At Platinum Stars, we would sit down towards the end of the seaon and take stock. There would be statistics to support that,” he explained.
He said it must then be established whether the team has the money to purchase a replaceme nt and in the case of a foreign player, the process of getting his work permit is a factor.
“That’s when you start talking to the player’s club and his representatives. It’s very complicated because you must also do a proper medical [test].”
Player agent Jazzman Mahlakgane echoed Mazingisa’s sentiments.
One of Mahlakgane’s players, Siphelele Ntshangase, recently switched from Baroka to Kaizer Chiefs in a R2-million deal.
“It could never be ‘OK, we are looking for this player, let’s do a deal, done’. It’s difficult,” Mahlakgane said.
He admitted that having a second interested club in the picture can complicate things.
“Ntshangase wanted to play for Chiefs at all costs and now his club is saying to me, ‘we have already agreed with the other club [in this case Bloemfontein Celtic], because Chiefs are stalling’. Now I must go manage the player’s emotions and expectations and say, ‘Listen my friend, that Chiefs story is dead and now you are going to Bloemfontein’. How does that work? This is a human being,” Mahlakgane said.
“Sometimes I must also deal with the club owner’s emotions in a situation where he has already decided the player must go to a certain club and he’s already made his budgets, but here I am disrupting it.”
From a player’s perspective, fans of a current club can make life difficult for him once they hear he’s on his way out. Siyabonga Nkosi, who moved from Celtic to Chiefs in 2006, said he was subjected to abuse by the Celtic fans.
“I remember I had to go and play at Seisa [Ramabodu] when word had come out that I had signed a pre-contract with Chiefs. [Celtic fans] were swearing at me during games and said all the bad things, but I went on and did the job until the last day,” Nkosi said.
‘ ‘ It could never be ‘OK, we are looking for this player, let’s do a deal’