Local soccer could benefit from the credit crunch

We are approaching the climax of the soccer season globally with a lot of leagues titles decided already. More importantly this is the time when serious player transfer activity begins. The credit crunch has hit all areas of the global economy but more importantly for Africa is that it has hit the big transfer-spenders from Europe. Only a handful of the world’s richest teams will be able to spend astronomical sums on world-class players.

Manchester City, Man U, Real Madrid and Barcelona are the ones that come to mind. The rest will have to go bargain hunting. This is where Africa comes into the picture. Top players from our beautiful continent still cost significantly less than their European or Brazillian counterparts. No player from our continent can command a transfer-fee of 10 million pounds plus. It may seem unjust, but that’s just the way it is.

Therefore we can expect overseas scouts to be searching for exceptional talent at every high profile African fixture. This is where South Africa has an even bigger advantage – they will be participating in the FIFA Confederations Cup as hosts in exactly one month with the only other African participants being Egypt, the Current African Champions.

This means that South African players will have the eyes of the world soley on themselves and the Egyptians. It’s a wonderful opportunity for them to be ‘seen’ without having to compete with stars from the West African and North African powerhouses. Our players must seize this opportunity and perform beyond themselves because they may not get another chance like this.

Remember that UEFA has recently been throwing around their 6+5 proposal which proposes that European clubs should have a minimum of 6 local players at one time on the pitch leaving the foreign players to fight for the remaining 5 berths.

This will limit opportunities even further for foreign players therefore African players have to make hay while the sun shines. This is why the mind boggles at the actions of one Mabhuti Khanyeza who having been fortunate enough to be selected for the Bafana Bafana (South African National Soccer team) squad for the 2010 squad spurned this opportunity by not attending an important training session. This player doesn’t understand the short life-span of a footballer’s career and the full implications of the credit crunch. I guess it is asking too much for him to realise how he can benefit from this terrible phenomenon.