Sundowns coach Cardoso reacts to Mudau and Ribeiro’s situations – ‘It won’t break the locker room’

Mamelodi Sundowns are set for action on Saturday in the second leg of the MTN8 semi-final against the defending champions, Orlando Pirates. 

The game comes amid the controversy surrounding the futures of Bafana Bafana international Khuliso Mudau and South American Lucas Ribeiro. Both are chasing a new challenge in a different league, but the defending Premier Soccer League Champions are reluctant to grant them their wishes.

Ribeiro has since escalated the issue to the FIFA Tribunal in his bid to force a move out of the club, hoping it will pay dividends. 

Despite the wrangles, coach Miguel Cardoso insists it will not affect the mood in the dressing room.

‘The focus is so strong on becoming better'

“Sundowns is preserving everything that might be happening and keeping it indoors, the locker room is impossible to break broken by this kind of thing, the locker room is too strong, the values inside the club are too strong,”  he told the media.

“These kinds of events, the focus is so strong on becoming better, working to improve in every match, and the time is so small, the levels of concentration, of course, must be so high, we don’t have to react to what happens around [the team].

“We have the philosophy, if someone falls, two should rise, it’s how we develop and shape character, and I think that’s how the story of Mamelodi Sundowns has been written, by strong characters, by strong values – by strong people.

‘Whatever happens, it’s always solved inside the doors, in the best way possible, and for sure in the right moment, spoken publicly,” Cardoso.