South African football is full of talent and the technical level of players is high, that is at least according to Orlando Pirates coach Jose Riveiro.
Having already spent less than a year in SA since joining Pirates at the start of the 2022/23 season, Riveiro has already picked up some of the differences between SA and European football.
Recently, the Spanish tactician said that SA football has of a lot of individual quality players, admitting that there is still a lot of room for improvement.
“South African football is different, full of talent in the tiers that I have more knowledge of – the PSL, NFD and the DDC league,” Riveiro said.
“You can see the individual performances are exceptional, the technical level of players is so high but there is always room for improvement. I don’t know much about the development of the country, how it works and where their key focuses are so far, I can only talk about Orlando Pirates.
“But it is also easy to spot the number of hours the players spent during the early stages of their careers, not only in their academies and that is something that we are missing a bit in Europe. So that is the main difference that I see, the capacity to be able to solve problems as an individual, the technical level and the skills.”
In his debut DStv Premiership campaign with the Buccaneers, Riveiro proved his doubters wrong by clinching the MTN8, securing the CAF Champions League spot after finishing number two and closed it off with the Nedbank Cup trophy recently.
Riveiro is expected to fly to Spain for holiday, before returning in SA shores to prepare for the 2023/24 season, which will kick off with a tough encounter against Sekhukhune United in the MTN8 quarterfinals.
