Downs to sacrifice Affonso for Safranko?

With news last week that Mamelodi Sundowns have agreed a deal in principle to sign Slovakian striker Pavol Safranko, it’s understood the club has already identified a member of the current squad expected to make room for the new arrival.

The 26-year-old has been likened to Kaizer Chiefs’ Samir Nurkovic and was initially approached to join the Brazilians earlier this year before the second transfer window slammed shut in February, only for his Romanian club, Sepsi OSK, to turn down a reported R13 million bid for his signature at the time.

It is now expected that he will join Sundowns at the start of the next campaign and the Siya crew understands that Mauricio Affonso could be offloaded. And it’s not hard to see why. The Uruguayan has battled injuries for more than a year now and hasn’t featured regularly for Downs since December 2019 when he helped them win the Telkom Knockout under then coach Pitso Mosimane. He is one of the club’s five foreign players, meaning Downs will have to release one of them to be able to register Safranko next season.

The Premier Soccer League only allows member teams five non-South African players – without permanent residency documents – on their books at any point in time.

So far this season, Affonso, who joined Downs from Peru’s Allianza Lima in July 2019, has made just one DStv Premiership appearance and two more in their CAF Champions League campaign – but injuries have stopped him from being effective.