In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Benni McCarthy was the undisputed poster boy of South African football and the best player the country had exported to Europe.
Passionate about Bafana Bafana, he plied his trade in some of Europe’s elite leagues and remains the only South African to have won the UEFA Champions League.
It will be a little eerie on Friday when McCarthy lines up against his beloved country of birth when he leads the Kenya national in an important 2027 Afcon qualifier against Bafana at the Orlando Amstel Arena.
McCarthy is a bona fide South African. He loves everything about his country, from its complex and chequered past to its geographical layout, culture, lingo and music. He even famously tried his hand with kwaito superstars, TKZee.
While he loved Nelson Mandela to bits, McCarthy is ready to inflict pain on SA if coach Pitso Mosimane’s players take a snooze during the two-legged qualifiers.
Mosimane said that knowing McCarthy very well did not give him the upper hand.
“It does not mean that if I know how Benni’s side play, it gives me an advantage. It only gives me a little bit of data and understanding of patterns and what is most likely to come and what has changed.
“Everybody knows how Orlando Pirates plays, until you get to Orlando Stadium, right? It is the way it is in modern football,” the former Mamelodi Sundowns and Al Ahly coach said.
In a recent interview with a digital media and sports coverage channel in Kenya, McCarthy said mutual respect would be on full display when the two coaches meet on the touchline.
“Like I said, the day we face each other, we’ll have that respect for one another,” McCarthy said.
“He’ll probably congratulate me for the work I am doing with Kenya and vice versa — I will congratulate coach Pitso for taking the Bafana job.
“There’s mutual respect; he’s my senior.
We’ve been very good friends from our playing days to now as coaches. We’ve always been on the opposite end of each other in battles. We know each other well. Me being born in South Africa, a beautiful country that has lots of love, will always be about that. But I am coaching Kenya, there’s no ‘ah, it’s my country’,” McCarthy said.
“The loyalty is not to where I was born but to the team that believed in me. They thought I was the one that could help them move forward in the right direction. So, that’s where my loyalty goes.”
Speaking to Sunday World previously, the former FC Porto, Blackburn Rovers and Ajax Amsterdam striker revealed that the Harambee Stars were targeting a place in the knockout stages of the tournament.
“We will do our best; we are most definitely targeting getting out of the group stages. And if we face Bafana Bafana, it will be tough, it will be really hard because for me, my heart is with Bafana. But of course, as a coach, you want to do the job for the country that you work for. So yeah, I want to do well but I know it will be almost impossible for us.
“This is because the standard in South Africa is a much higher standard than Kenya. But, like I said, sometimes it’s not about how high your standards are. It will be about the willing power and how good and organised your teams are. And I think my team is pretty organised and they will give everything. We definitely won’t lose 8-0 like we did against Senegal,” he added.
- In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Benni McCarthy was the undisputed poster boy of South African football and the best player the country had exported to Europe.
- Passionate about Bafana Bafana, he plied his trade in some of Europe’s elite leagues and remains the only South African to have won the UEFA Champions League.
- It will be a little eerie on Friday when McCarthy lines up against his beloved country of birth when he leads the Kenya national in an important 2027 Afcon qualifier against Bafana at the Orlando Amstel Arena.
- McCarthy is a bona fide South African.
- He loves everything about his country, from its complex and chequered past to its geographical layout, culture, lingo and music.
