Miguel Cardoso speaks on Thato Sibiya Sundowns debut | OneFootball

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Cardoso reacts to Sibiya Downs debut

Photo: Thato Sibiya

Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso has reacted to Thato Sibiya's debut against Orbit College in the Betway Premiership.

The 19-year-old left-back featured for the entire 90 minutes, walking away with the man of the match accolade to cap off a scintillating performance.

Reflecting on Sibiya's eye-catching debut, Cardoso stressed the importance of timing and readiness when handing youngsters first-team opportunities.

“When you speak about young players, there are different aspects that allow a coach to line him up, sometimes we speak about speed of readiness that I think it's quite important, if the player is really ready for the challenge of playing in a team like Mamelodi Sundowns and succeed,” he said.

"I don't think that opportunities to young players should be given if they are not ready to succeed, and we felt that Thato was ready and you didn't follow our trip to Botswana [for charity tournament], but we've been preparing him for some time like other young players.

"But Thato gave us very good answers in the matches he played in Botswana tournament. It's also due to the fact that we didn't have Aubrey [Modiba] with us, we didn't have Divine [Lunga], so it was absolutely more simple to promote him.

"And then appeared what we see very important - the speed of opportunity. So, when the opportunity appeared, we felt it was the moment, we felt that readiness and then it's obviously important that the other teammates help him. I think he did well his job, so congratulations to him for the fact that he was man of the match.

Notably, Sibiya won the Under-20 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) with South Africa last year, and was part of the World Cup squad in Chile, where Amajita crashed out in the Round of 32.