Mamelodi Sundowns Chan scouting mission yielding promising results

Nyandoro and colleague Tembela “Terra” Maliwa have been in Algeria from the beginning of the Chan tournament hunting for the club’s next big find.

Sundowns are one of only a few African teams that have been monitoring talent in this tournament and the only PSL side to do so, competing with some big scouts from European clubs. 

Nyandoro says their key assignment is to find a striker with the necessary attributes to excel at Downs – someone in the mold of current marksman Peter Shalulile.

"At this moment in time, we came with a specific position that we're looking for, which, of course, is a striker, but not just any striker," Nyandoro told SABC Sport.

"We have seen so many good strikers in this tournament but there is a specific striker that we need at Mamelodi Sundowns Football Club, and that features the attributes that we're looking for.

"But not to close [the door on] any other position, I think we have seen so many good players in different positions, and we are able to also look at and scout those players."

Coach Rulani Mokwena recently spoke proudly about the job Nyandoro and Maliwa had been sent to do in Algeria, and the former Sundowns skipper says having the backing of the head coach makes the job easy for the scouts.

"Of course, if you hear those words coming from your senior coach, you can only be proud and coach Rulani is one person with whom we get along well, and he coached me whilst I was still playing," he added.

"And for him to support this initiative, it means a lot because I had to go to him before I came here, to tell him about our plans and we sat down to discuss what we're looking for in the next [transfer] window period.

"He gave us full support, which is something that we need. For us, it's our duty and our job to look for players that suit the team."