Amajita head coach Raymond Mdaka says midfielder Shandre Campbell is a local boy through and through and the national team doesn’t feel like they come second to the player.
The Club NXT player, Club Brugge’s youth side, was named Player of the Tournament at the 2024 COSAFA U20 tournament in Mozambique, helping Amajita clinch the regional title as they qualified for next year’s U20 AFCON which is also an U20 World Cup qualifier.
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Mdaka spoke to iDiski Time senior writer Velile Mnyandu in edition 175 of the newspaper where the coach said the former SuperSport United player has always prioritised being a team player more than being a superstar even now when he plays abroad.
The coach also explained how important it is for the technical team to also treat him as equally as his teammates while managing expectations and remembering to also not put him under pressure because of his youth.
“We take it like Shandre is being ours,” Mdaka told iDiski Times.
“We even had him in the first camp. You remember when we were here and started the team? We looked at him even when he came to say this is his home.
“That’s where he started before, he went outside. So, it was very, very easy for him to get into the team. Had you seen him immediately arrive he was just like flowing with the rest of the team, the guys. It made him get settled.
“But remember, these are boys you need to manage their mentality, you need to manage their mind, their behaviour. It’s not easy.
“When he arrived, me and the assistant, we sat down with him. We spoke to him. We wanted to understand how they play him and all these other things only to find that it is not different from how we are used to playing him. And also, we had to understand where he is and how much contribution to expect.
“As much as we’re getting 100% commitment from everybody, we also emphasise that on this kind of players, because when they come down here to represent the country from their teams, the teams are also watching, everybody’s watching.
“But you don’t put over-expectations to players like that in a way that you put them under pressure, but you make them feel equal to other players and the commitment that we expect from each and every one.
