Deprecated: str_replace(): Passing null to parameter #3 ($subject) of type array|string is deprecated in /home/zbyiujsu/public_html/wp-content/plugins/jnews-social-share/class.jnews-initial-counter.php on line 40
Deprecated: str_replace(): Passing null to parameter #3 ($subject) of type array|string is deprecated in /home/zbyiujsu/public_html/wp-content/plugins/jnews-social-share/class.jnews-initial-counter.php on line 40
Deprecated: str_replace(): Passing null to parameter #3 ($subject) of type array|string is deprecated in /home/zbyiujsu/public_html/wp-content/plugins/jnews-social-share/class.jnews-initial-counter.php on line 40
Deprecated: str_replace(): Passing null to parameter #3 ($subject) of type array|string is deprecated in /home/zbyiujsu/public_html/wp-content/plugins/jnews-social-share/class.jnews-initial-counter.php on line 40
Mamelodi Sundowns co-coach Rulani Mokwena has explained why the club opted to part ways with striker Pavol Šafranko after just one season.
Šafranko, 27, has already found a new club after being unveiled by his former club Sepsi OSK less than 24 hours after his Downs exit was announced.
Mokwena, who described the Slovakia international as a model athlete and great human being, explains it was a football decision, because the club felt they needed Marcelo Allende more to achieve their targets this season and Šafranko was blocking one of the foreign spots.
“I just got to complement Pavol for the human being that he is, he was superb professional, extremely hard worker and a very talented footballer,” he told Robert Marawa on Marawa Sports Worldwide.
“But we are in a space where we moved to something more important than one and the reality is also a limited space when it comes to the foreign quota, we had to make a difficult decision and unfortunately we need to do a bit better and Pavol as a foreigner occupied that space, but it was a very difficult decision.
“Sometimes in football these are the most difficult decisions, the decisions that goes to your heart, where you say to yourself ‘my goodness, what an incredible human being.
“But the football club needed something a lot different and then the decision is a decision that goes against the heart because it makes a little bit more logic to free up the space and try to bring in a Marcelo Allende for example who became available in the market and he is the type of player that we needed more than the type of player that Pavol was.
“So it was just a footballing decision and the footballing decisions at times go against what your heart feels but the hearts is going to accept it because it is the right decision. It’s a decision that we had to take as a football club, it’s not just a decision we took as coaches, it’s a decision that the entire football club thought was the right decision.
“He gave us so much, Pavol. We just want to thank him for all he did while he was with us, we appreciated all the goals, all the contributions, the mentality change and the professionalism that he brought into the club. It was just unfortunate that we had to take a different direction for the betterment of the club.”