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In-Form SA Star Flying Under Broos’ Radar?

With the Swedish season having come to an end, one of South Africa’s best performers abroad, Tashreeq Matthews has reached double figures in both goals and assists.

Matthews has been involved in 20 goals this season for his club Sirius, and played a key role for IK Sirius, having one of their most successful Swedish Allsvenskan seasons in their history.

The 23-year-old scored 10 goals and had 10 assists as Sirius, who at one point were in the relegation battle, finished the season in eighth position.

In fact, Matthews superb form this past season has resulted in only one player in the Allsvenkan being involved in more goals, Nahir Besara of Hammarby IF scored nine goals and had 13 assists, contributing to two more goals than the South African.

But despite Matthews’ prolific form, he has not been recognised at the senior international level, and is yet to receive a call-up to Bafana Bafana by Hugo Broos.

Matthews, formerly of the Ajax Cape Town academy, was once a regular at the junior international level, but after moving to Europe at the age of 18, his appearances, even for the U20s, dried up.

Unfortunately, many youth fixtures fell outside of the international calendar, his clubs (Borussia Dortmund and FC Utrecht, at the time) were not always open to releasing him for games when he was called up, and despite helping the team qualify, Matthews missed out on the 2019 CAF U20 Africa Cup of Nations and that year’s FIFA U20 World Cup, due to these reasons.

Matthews’ performances in 2023 saw him named iDiski Times’ Ace of the Week six times this year.

David Kappel
David Kappel
David Kappel has served as a renowned international editor and content manager for almost a decade. David specialises in ensuring content and social media posts are highly engaging for football fans and was previously the international editor at Soccer Laduma. He is currently the iDiski Times website editor and social strategist.
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