Mamelodi Sundowns will face Borussia Dortmund in their second match at the Club World Cup on Saturday and in their ranks, they have a player who knows the German giants very well.
The Brazilians will perhaps seek to get whatever little they can from Tashreeq Matthews who is a former Dortmund player as they look to collect maximum points from the Bundesliga club.
Matthews is not the only South African player who has played for both Dortmund and heading into Saturday’s match, Afrik-Foot highlights all of them.
Tashreeq Matthews
A current member of the Dortmund squad who played for Dortmund, 24-year-old Matthews joined the Bundesliga giants in 2018 after successful trials from the Ajax Cape Town academy where he had spent eight years, having moved from Vasco da Gama aged 10.
At Dortmund, Matthews was confined to the U19 team and never made it to the senior side where the likes Christian Pulisic, Jadon Sancho and club legend Marco Reus were ahead of him in the pecking order.
Having struggled to break into the senior team, Matthews was loaned out to Dutch club Utrecht in 2019 but he had a bad experience as he did not play, forcing to go on loan to Swedish club Helsingborgs IF the same year.
A change of coach, however, when former Barcelona, Manchester United and Celtic striker Henrik Larsson left, saw his successor Olof Mellberg overlook Matthews and he was soon out of the club, joining Varbergs BoIS, where he played for two years (2020-2022) before a one-year spell at Sirius.
In January 2024, Sundowns convinced him to return home, having settled in Sweden, and he has so far played 52 games, scoring 12 goals, and providing eight assists.
Steven Pienaar
One of South Africa’s top players, Steven Pienaar also donned the famous yellow shirt of Dortmund, when he represented the club from 2006-2008.
Pienaar joined Dortmund from Ajax Amsterdam and was seen as the man to replace Czech playmaker Thomas Rosicky, who had just departed to Arsenal, but he struggled to live up to expectations and managed just 27 appearances in his one-and-half-years at the club while providing one assist.
He would join Everton initially on loan in the summer of 2008 and he blossomed at Goodison Park, making the deal permanent, although unlike Matthews, he did not play for Sundowns, his last club being Bidvest Wits.
Delron Buckley
Former Bafana Bafana winger Delron Buckley was born in Durban but spent nearly all of his football career in Germany, having started out at VfL Bochum, when he was 18 in 1995.
After nine years, he left in 2004 to join Arminia Bielefeld where he enjoyed his best season, scoring 15 goals as he helped the club avoid relegation, and that great performance attracted Dortmund who handed him a four-year deal in 2005.
He played at Dortmund until 2009, working under Jurgen Klopp, in between loan spells at Basel and Mainz.
Overall, the 70-caped South African international made 70 appearances for Dortmund, scoring just one goal and providing six assists.
After 17 years in Germany, Buckley returned home in 2012 and joined Maritzburg United, playing for two years before he hung his boots.
