What are the facts?

Sundowns have always had their contacts in South America to help them scout for talent, but the appointment of sporting director Flemming Berg has cast the net even wider. Flemming, in fact, played a big part in bringing Allende to the PSL, as revealed by co-coach Rhulani Mokwena.

“The system has changed a little bit because now we have a sporting director who has got extensive contacts in many parts of the world, including South America. Marcelo Allende came through the recommendation of the sporting director and then we had to watch and see whether or not the player had enough.

“Flemming had followed the player extensively for quite some time and knew a little bit about the player. When we watched him, we saw huge qualities that we felt could assist and improve the team. There’s a lot now with regards to contacts. There’s Flemming’s contacts and the club’s contacts and previous work with clubs in South America for Ricardo Nascimento, Leonardo Castro and Mauricio Affonso, and many others we have brought in from that space,” Mokwena told the Siya crew.

“Sundowns do not only focus on what the player can do on the field. They do research on the personality and lifestyles of the players, to ensure that they will fit in when they come to South Africa.

“But what happened with (Gaston) Sirino is that we used data. We used data to get players we were looking for in certain positions, to get guidelines on the kind of players we are looking for. It’s about looking at the player, analyzing the strengths and weaknesses and then we engage our contacts to be able to investigate the player’s lifestyle, personality and other things. Then it’s the legal issues of finances and contracts, which is dealt with by senior management. But generally, that is the process,” added Mokwena.

Scouting players in South America was a bit difficult for

Sundowns during the COVID19 period, but the young tactician explained how they worked around the situation.

“Because of COVID, we could not get into that space of looking at players and travelling, so we would rely on footage on things like Wyscout, Instat Scout… those stats are very important for us. For example, with Saavedra, we were looking at a different player and while watching a different player, we were able to spot Saavedra, who was playing in the same club and national team as the player we were initially looking at. But we felt that Saavedra was the better option,” Mokwena explained.