Making the trek home
REASONS WHY: NGONGCA OPENS UP
Despite personal situation, Anele is worried about trend.
Being miles away in a foreign land, Anele Ngcongca missed out on seeing his daughter growing up. But when his mother fell ill, he couldn’t take it any longer and decided it was time to return home.
Ngcongca revealed to Phakaaathi his reasons for returning home last year. He had spent almost a decade at Belgian team Racing Genk before joining Pitso Mosimane’s all-conquering Mamelodi Sundowns.
“I decided to come back home because of the family and it was difficult for my daughter to go up and down because she and my fiancee didn’t have Belgian passports,” said the 29-year-old.
“I had to get married to fix that, and my daughter is growing and I needed to play my part in her life as a father. My mother was also not well, that was the main reason I came back,” said Ngcongca.
While Ngcongca’s reasons are perfectly understandable, there has been an increase in the number of overseas-based players coming back to the Absa Premiership over the past few years with Daylon Claasen and Ayanda Patosi being the most recent. Andile Jali is also said to be looking to return home. Ironically, Ngcongca sees this as a worrying trend.
“I spoke to Daylon. For a player like him, I find it strange because he is an asset to the national team and he could’ve learned more in Europe if he would have moved to another big team or league. We could have gained a lot of experience as a nation.
“It is a concern because now you ask yourself a question of how many players will we have in Bafana Bafana who are playing regularly in Europe. It is painful. We are supposed to have players who are playing in the top leagues like Thulani Serero, Andile Jali and Tokelo Rantie.
“But we need more players to play in Europe. Now as it is happening, it is really weird.”
Ngcongca says all that is left now is to nurture the budding talent in the PSL, mature them and export them overseas.
“We need to groom the likes of Percy Tau to move as quickly as they can so that we can have a solid national team.”