Cape Town - Cape Town City’s commitment to building a diverse football squad to appeal to the multi-cultural city in which it resides, continues apace with the signing of Australian James Brown and Khayelitsha’s Samora Motloung.
John Comitis and his head coach, Eric Tinkler, have worked feverishly and quickly in assembling a squad capable of being competitive in its debut PSL campaign.
A host of signings have seen the City squad swell to 23 and Comitis said he was looking at perhaps another two additions before the season kicks off on August 23, to bring the number to 25 players.
The latest two signings - Brown and Motloung - are an interesting and exciting mix for City. Attacking midfielder Brown, now 26-years old, began his professional career at the Queensland Institute of Sport, before joining the Australian Institute of Sport. He has been involved in his country’s Under-17, U20 and U23 programmes.
“Brown is another addition of an extremely attacking player, who offers plenty of versatility and creativity,” said Comitis. “He had the privilege of playing for Melbourne City, so his experience and his speed will be a big asset for the team. Brown was the darling of the Australian league… There are only a few players of aboriginal descent, of which he is one. We are happy to have him in South Africa.”
Another notable sidebar is that Brown’s previous club was Melbourne City, one of the teams in the lucrative City Football Group, which has established a network of linked clubs under the aegis of Manchester City. At the moment, it includes Manchester City, New York City (USA), Melbourne City (Australia) and Yokohama F. Marinos (Japan).
And it’s no secret that Comitis is, sometime in the near future, looking at attracting interest from the City group, with a view to adding Cape Town City to that list.
Brown has been in the Cape for a week already and is loving the place: “It’s a beautiful city, beautiful landscape, beautiful scenery, beautiful people as well.”
Motloung makes a return to the city of his birth and the capture of the goalkeeper from Khayelitsha, infuses the squad with more Cape flavour. The 21-year-old had been in the Cape United Soccer School of Excellence and also spent time in the youth academy of Ajax Cape Town. Last season, though, he signed for Orlando Pirates. But Comitis has been able to persuade the youngster to come back home.
“Samora is a very special player,” said Comitis. “After having won U19 Copa Amsterdam Goalkeeper of the Tournament a few years back and then subsequently not making the first team at Ajax CT, I was glad he finally managed to secure himself a contract at Orlando Pirates. But, with Jackson Mabokgwane favoured to be the number one keeper for Pirates this season, we didn’t hesitate to request Pirates to sell us Samora, to bring him back to Cape Town, especially because he’s from Khayelitsha.”
“He may even feature in our starting line-up for our first home game, as Shu-Aib Walters will be suspended. For Samora, it’s all to play for, we are really excited to bring a home-grown Capetonian into the mix.”
For City, it’s all about creating the right mix in the squad. They have the local flair of the 14 Mpumalanga Black Aces players transferred when Comitis bought the club, they’ve got the ambition and talent of the Cape kids, and the vision is to fuse the South African style with the experience and technical craft of the overseas players.
Cape Argus