Monnapule Saleng saga: Agent opens up on ex-Orlando Pirates, Sundowns winger

Monnapule Saleng has been in the cold at Mamelodi Sundowns after falling out with coach Miguel Cardoso.

The tactician alleged that the former Orlando Pirates attacker is out of the squad for “consecutively breaking rules and values of the locker room and club”. He stated that the Bafana Bafana international deliberately absconded from duty, which included the CAF Champions League outing.

Saleng joined Masandawana from Orlando Pirates in the 2025/26 January transfer window. Before making the move to the Brazilians, the now 28-year-old served at Orbit College for six months, albeit on loan.

His agent, Karabo Mathang-Tshabuse, has now explained what is happening to the talented attacker.

Tough season for Saleng

I think that I’m also on record for speaking about what happened to go to Orlando Pirates,” she said on MetroFM.

“To say the issue was more nuanced than a contractual issue, which was what was being reported at the time, and it had to do with welfare and well-being of the player.

“Without breaching his confidentiality, I think that he’s traveled a season that is quite difficult for him to show up as a professional player.

“With Orbit, him being loaned to Orbit, it was Pirates’ move to ease tensions and to help him recuperate with a particular individual that found him. You know, Pogiso is the one who found this gem, took him to Free State Stars to say maybe under his tutelage, his guidance, he can come back into the fold.

And so he did a loan spell there. We got so much fire for that to say he’s regressing. But again, like I say, you know, he is traveling a very difficult path – and I’m not saying that I know what it is, I don’t,” she explained.

It is a psychological issue

“I’m not a medical doctor. I can see there’s an issue. I can see how it’s manifesting itself, but it is definitely greater than misbehavior, and that’s the issue.

“People are defining it as misconduct, bad behavior, and Pogiso has come out and said he’s showing up in a way that is unacceptable, which I agree with. But it is more nuanced than that. It is more deeper than that. It’s psychological.

“And I think that there’s a welfare issue that I can’t put my finger on, but I’m not going to leave my client at that stage. We walk through it with him, and we try and get him support.

“And I think that you know Sundowns is professional enough to call it what it is to say there is an issue there. You heard the coach come out and say it, but I think that they are also kind enough to give him the space to try and see how he can recuperate back into the fold of a professional, high-performing player.

“When the psychological safety of an individual, and I can see that it’s a long-standing issue, it manifested itself first at Pirates. It continued at Orbit. He started off well with Sundowns, but there is something there, and I am not qualified to diagnose it.”

How the Agency is helping Saleng

“What I can do is I can call for help, I can cry for help, I can walk with my client for that help. But it is up to him to say, ‘let’s take it’,” Mathang-Tshabuse further added.

“The challenge is, and this is the issue with mental well-being, you cannot force somebody. You can advise, you can set up the meeting. But that’s the issue – if someone doesn’t have the capacity to appreciate what is going on, they cannot have the capacity to then take on the medical help.

“But we’ve raised it. We’ve raised it on all angles, with all the clubs, and I’m on record to say, I think that there is a psychological safety thing, and I’m not sure what more we can do.

“But it it is an issue in football. We we thought Jayden Adams was happy, we thought he was fine, we saw him come back from the World Cup, and we are got the shock of our lives to wake up one day, and there’s actually was a psychological issue. And it’s silent, these things,” she concluded.