No Surprise as Sundowns shine

Surprise Moriri says the spirit of fair competition will pay off handsomely for Mamelodi Sundowns.

On his arrival at the club at the start of the season, Johan Neeskens made a stern declaration.

“I don’t care about names; I care about what a player shows me at training.”

Fast forward to today and the Sundowns midfielder says the general feeling in the Brazilians’ camp is that players get the nod for the starting line-up solely on merit.

“I think it (Neeskens’ stance) has rubbed off on the team and the players can see that whoever is working hard gets a chance to play,” Moriri told KickOff.com.

“Even the youngsters are getting an equal opportunity … it doesn’t matter who you are, what matters is that you prove to the coach that you are working hard.”

“For example, we all know Siyabonga Ngubane as a midfielder but he was given a chance at right-back and he has been playing regularly, because the coach feels he is working hard.”

“So Siyabonga grabbed his chance with both hands and it is the same for every player in the team,” he said.

Sundowns are not won a trophy in the past three seasons, but Moriri firmly believes that would soon be a thing of the past with Neeskens in charge.