Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso says one of the reasons his side endured a slow start to the past season was because of the high number of young players they introduced in the first team.
Sundowns finished the 2025/26 season in second place with 68 points, a point behind new champions Orlando Pirates, failing to win domestic cups though they were triumphant in the CAF Champions League.
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Masandawana had an inconsistent start collecting 15 points from a possible 21 in their opening seven matches, with draws in the first game against Chippa United, Kaizer Chiefs and Marumo Gallants.
Cardoso said though this is not the only reason, it was one of the factors. He said balancing giving youth opportunities and the team’s performance always comes at a price giving examples with Thato Sibiya and Kutlwano Letlhaku.
“I think that one of the reasons that didn’t allow us to start the season the way we could have started was exactly because of the fact that we had to immediately, put too many youngsters to play in a moment that we needed, because we had lack of numbers in that moment,” said the coach on The Pitchside Podcast.
“And we exposed them probably to a level that they were not able to sustain, especially the level that the team needed in terms of results. Promoting young players is a challenge for a coach, a beautiful one. Look, this medal [Champions League] is very important but bringing a young player to a first team level is a medal as valuable as this one, and I know that. But also, the way you do it can throw him in the garbage, and you cannot also do that.
“I’ll give you one example. We believed and we believe a lot on Thato Sibiya. We know that he’s a future fantastic left-back. But I maybe believed on him too much by exposing him, for example, in the Al Hilal match away and he had come from two fantastic performances on the Championship, even being Man of the Match in one of them. And I was so confident that I said, no, he can start that match. But indeed, we felt as soon as the match started, oops.
“We keep on believing on him. This boy will have many opportunities, and maybe he will succeed more because we gave them that opportunity but in that moment, we paid also because of him, not only because of him. So, the moment of the opportunity and the way we do it is so decisive on that.
“I think that is very important that we understand that producing young players is also making assets for the club, is making money for the club because you don’t need to buy when you have. It’s a reason for everybody to work on this club. There’s a lot of work on Kutlwano Letlhaku before we had the hands on him.
“So we need to praise everybody that comes along all that process until the moment. For example, Coach Tiro [Van Rooyen] this season had a fantastic job with him in order to keep on motivating, keep on giving opportunities in the Diski [DDC], keep on working with him, so that we could bring him back in the right moment.
“People need as much as they love our Academy, and we also love our Academy, we’re the first ones to love the Academy. Always believe there’s a moment to do the things, and that moment that must be the right one, because the demand to win is so big that you cannot risk it. So, you need to balance it in the right way.”
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