In black & white! What Orlando Pirates are missing after letting Monnapule Saleng join Mamelodi Sundowns

Orlando Pirates made a shocking decision in the January transfer window: sell their star Monnapule Saleng to Mamelodi Sundowns.

This was an unexpected move from the Soweto giants considering the fact that they were strengthening a direct rival in their Premier Soccer League (PSL) race. The 27-year-old South Africa interational is among the talented attackers in the top-tier.

Since joining Masandawana, Saleng has made four appearances across all competitions, starting once.

On Tuesday, the attacker was involved as Mamelodi Sundowns beat Marumo Gallants 3-1 at Loftus Versfeld Stadium to go top of the table with 50 points, two more than second-placed Bucs.

Ex-Orlando Pirates winger Saleng lauded

Coach Miguel Cardoso has now explained why Saleng was an ideal signing from the Buccaneers.

“Saleng is a player that we are discovering day by day, and try to make him understand what we also want from him. He can play left and right, and obviously different things come from left and right. We didn’t have a lot of training sessions with Saleng in terms of building him in the direction of the team,” he told the media.

“So we are trying to profit from what he has that is natural rather than putting him on the collective training process.

“This week, for example, I put him on the pocket on the right, and I got also excited – I said wow, we have a guy who can also play in this spaces, because he loves the game, he’s so aggressive, he loves a lot playing football,” Cardoso concluded.