'Downs must release Sirino to accommodate new foreigners'

Mamelodi Sundowns legend Katlego "Killer" Mphela hasn't hesitated to say the club must sacrifice Gaston Sirino amid their foreign quota conundrum. 

Before signing left-footed 24-year-old Moroccan centre-back Abdelmounaim Boutouil, Sundowns already had six foreign players in Sirino (Uruguay), Peter Shalulile (Namibia), Pavol Safranko (Slovakia) Divine Lunga (Zimbabwe), Erwin Mario Saavedra (Bolivia) and Abubeker Nasir (Ethiopia) on their roster.

The Brazillians are also believed to be on the verge of recruiting Chilean starlet Marcelo Allende Bravo, 23. The arrival of Bravo would take Sundowns' number of foreign players to eight, while article 34.2 of the National Soccer League (NSL) handbook says: “A member club may not have more than 5 (five) foreign players contracted with it at any point in time.’’

Mphela, who netted 50 goals for the club between 2008 and 2014, thinks Sirino must be one of the foreign players who must make way for the newcomers. Killer has reasoned that new recruit Sipho Mbule can easily replace Sirino, who in the past wanted to abandon Sundowns for Al Ahly. In 2020, the 30-year-old Sirino signed a new five-year contract  extension with Sundowns.

"Surely the club have a plan as to how they will solve this problem of having many foreign players. Saavedra had a difficult season and Safranko hasn't really showed what he's got but you would want to give them another chance. So personally I would let Sirino go. He wanted to leave in the past few months,'' Mphela told Sowetan yesterday.

"I don't know his mental state but I think he'd also jump at the opportunity to go. You can then loan out others because I believe the new foreign players are signed for the Champions League. There's Mbule now who can play like Sirino, so it makes sense to let Sirino go to clear up the space for the coming guys.''

All Downs' foreign stars haven't been in SA for five years, hence they don't yet qualify for  permanent residence to be registered as locals like Denis Onyango (Uganda), Brian Onyango (Kenya) and Kennedy Mweene (Zambia), who are all naturalised and registered as locals.