That the top DStv Premiership leading goal scorers are over 30 years of age and four of the five are midfielders paints a bleak future for Bafana Bafana.
This is the view of Ishmael Maluleke, who won the PSL golden boot with Manning Rangers in the 2001/02 season with 18 goals.
Of those five leading goal scorers, only Bradley Grobler is a striker with 13 goals. Others like Ruzaigh Gamildien, Mduduzi Mdantsane and Themba Zwane are midfielders, while fellow forward Peter Shalulile is a Namibian international.
Maluleke believes this will continue to haunt SA football, and a solution could be to have previous golden boot winners being given the task of coaching strikers at the club and national level.
“Like I always say, this is similar to the issue of goalkeeping. Whatever is happening within the PSL clubs with goalkeepers is the same thing that is happening with strikers,” Maluleke told Sowetan yesterday.
“Look at the number one goalkeepers at the so-called big clubs – Orlando Pirates, Kaizer Chiefs and Mamelodi Sundowns – they are all foreigners.
“Now number one goalkeeper at Chiefs is Nigerian [Daniel Akpeyi], Sundowns have a Ugandan [Denis Onyango] and at Pirates it is Ghanaian [Richard Ofori]. This is similar to our strikers and we are struggling. We have strikers who are getting older, and we don’t have future forwards who we can look up to.
“If we have a striker like Grobler, who is an outright striker, being there and the other people who are competing with him are midfielders like Zwane and Mdantsane who are not playing up front it becomes a problem for Bafana coach Molefi Ntseki to select a combination of forwards.”
Maluleke also feels that PSL teams are not producing enough quality strikers from a young age, which is affecting the national team. “The best solution that we need to have is to apply the same system which is being done in rugby to have a defenders coach, midfielders coach, forwards coaches.
“You want to tell me that people like me and others who were top goal scorers in the past and now have a CAF C coaching licence cannot be able to produce best strikers?"
DStv Premiership leading goal scorers
Bradley Grobler (31 years old);13 goals
Ruzaigh Gamildien (31); 11 goals
Mduduzi Mdantsane (26); nine goals
Themba Zwane (31); eight goals
Peter Shalulile* (27); eight goals
Thabiso Kutumela (27); seven goals
*Namibian
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