Miguel Cardoso dissects Monnapule Saleng signing | OneFootball

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Cardoso speaks on Saleng acquisition

Photo: Phakamisa Lensman/BackPagePix

Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso has shed light on the high-profile signing of Monnapule Saleng from Orlando Pirates.

The 27-year-old forward spent the first round of the campaign on loan at Orbit College after he was phased out by the Buccaneers since December 2024.

Reflecting on the major coup after their 2-0 victory over Orbit College in the Betway Premiership, Cardoso refrained from touching on the player's struggles at Pirates and acknowledged his quality.

“Saleng is an international player for South Africa, a qualified player. I remember coach Jose Riveiro speaking about Saleng in the moment he was struggling at Pirates regarding playing or not playing and being separated from the group - it's even on that Pirates program [Bucs Camp],” he said.

"So, I don't need to speak about his quality, you know the quality the boy has and I will not speak about what happened at Pirates, it has nothing to do with me. Today [Monday] the coach of Orbit College spoke about Saleng and how he misses him in the team because he was a key player.

The Downs mentor explained that Saleng aligned with the profile Sundowns wanted in a marquee signing, and assured the player will be afforded ample time to recover from his injury.

“We wanted to sign a winger, we wanted to sign a big player, an aggressive player, a quality player - a player that can bring something different to what we had between our players. If you compare for example the profile of Nuno [Santos] and Saleng is completely different,” Cardoso said.

"But it's important that the coach also has different tools to manage in different moments of the game and to manage different opponents and different characteristics of the games. The decision to bring Saleng was a sports decision from the club, that obviously I shared, and we have expectations for the future but we also have patience.

"Unfortunately, Saleng is injured, he's not ready to give his services to the club, it will still take some time. The patience we need is to bring the player to his best level, so he needs to recover from the injuries he has from the past.

"But the injuries he has are things that will be recovered with the work of our medical department. So, signing him in this condition is also a word of trust on the boy, on our medical department - it's not a big issue, in two months he will be performing for Sundowns, but we hope it will be less.