Mamelodi Sundowns Sporting Director Flemming Berg has given some insight into the PSL giants’ transfer activities, explaining how joining a platform called TransferRoom has stopped the club from wasting too much time on new signings.
Berg, who previously worked as chief scout for both Brøndby and FC Nordsjælland before a seven-year spell as international scout at Premier League giants Chelsea, was largedly credited with the overhaul of the new Danish Golden Generation after he had served as the Development Manager of the DBU (Danish Football Union) for the seven years before making the switch to Mzansi.
There has been a clear upswing in transfer activity since Berg joined the clubs, with players like Marcelo Allende, Lucas Ribeiro Costa, Matias Esquivel and Tashreeq Matthews among the high-profile players who have joined the club from overseas.
While Sundowns always had strong connections to South America, it seems as though the club has taken their transfer activity outside of South Africa up a notch and Berg has now given some insight of how the club works.
“I think in general our scouting department previously has wasted so much time on players that in the end you find out they were not a possibility anyway,” says Berg told TransferRoom, a platform, which connects representatives from all over the world to help making better-informed transfer decisions.
“TransferRoom gives us a lot of possibilities and knowledge, so we don’t waste time. On TransferRoom, you know straight away if a player is available.
“So it makes us a bit more efficient in that scouting work, but also gives us some possibilities to get into some markets that are otherwise difficult to get into.”
Sundowns signed Allende after a meeting with Cristian Ogalde, owner and president of CD Magallanes, who had a sell-on percentage included in their deal with Montevideo City Torque – the club Masandawana bought Allende from in a deal reportedly worth R51 million.
