Benni McCarthy will be sharing his goal-scoring tips with the strike force of Manchester United, which may include five-time Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo.
The 44-year-old all-time leading Bafana Bafana striker is set to be unveiled tomorrow as part of the coaching staff of new United manager Erik ten Hag, in charge of training strikers.
Though the duration of the contract remains unknown, the Sunday Times has it on good authority that the Hanover Park-born mentor has close connections with a member of Ten Hag’s technical staff.
An insider told Sunday Times yesterday that McCarthy’s addition to Ten Hag’s team was made possible by Mitchell van der Graag, an assistant coach in the Dutchman’s coaching staff at United.
An insider said McCarthy’s addition to Ten Hag’s team was made possible by Mitchell van der Graag
“From what I know, Benni is a close associate of one of the assistant coaches of Ten Hag. It is not as if Benni worked with Ten Hag during his days at Ajax Cape Town. But when Benni was there, Ten Hag knew about him,” the insider said.
“If one of his immediate lieutenants confirms that this South African is the guy that we need and we can work with in terms of the backroom staff, his word carries weight.”
What also counted in McCarthy’s favour was his knowledge of the English Premiership owing to the half a dozen years he spent playing in the league.
“He spent six years in England playing for Blackburn United alongside his South African countryman Aaron Mokoena. He also turned out for West Ham. Those factors were positives.
“They have considered things like the fact that he spent time plying his trade in Spain with Celta Vigo and won the Champions League with Porto (2004) under Jose Mourinho.”
Few will forget the wonderful night Porto enjoyed at Old Trafford when McCarthy’s two goals caused a major upset and the unfancied Portuguese side stormed to a sensational victory against the Red Devils.
McCarthy coached Durban side AmaZulu FC to a runners-up spot in the SA DStv Premiership 2020-2021 campaign. Earlier he won the MTN8 trophy with Cape Town City in 2018.
He also won the Eerie Divisie and a couple of trophies with Ajax during his two-year spell in the Dutch league when he scored 20 goals in 36 matches.
Man United suffered their first defeat of the pre-season when they went down 1-0 to Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid via a late strike by Joao Felix.
During their tours of Thailand and Australia, the English side had gone undefeated but they went down to a Felix goal with four minutes remaining on the clock.
They wrap up their pre-season with a clash against Rayo Vallecano this afternoon and will play the opening EPL match at home against Brighton & Hove Albion on Sunday.
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