JOHANNESBURG – Jeremy Brockie, who completed his move from SuperSport United to neighbours Mamelodi Sundowns on Monday, says the Brazilians matched his personal targets when persuading him to cross over.
The 30-year-old has been the subject of interest from Sundowns for nearly a year, and his transfer saga, which involved his request to leave SuperSport during the August window being rejected, finally ended this week.
“There is so much ability and talent there,” Brockie said on being a Brazilian. “The club is very ambitious. They want to win every competition they play in, and most recently they won the African Champions League, and they want to give it a go and get back to the (Fifa) Club World Cup again.
“As a player, when you hear ambitions like that, they match yours, your own personal goals. Hopefully I can continue to win silverware.”
The striker scored 54 goals in 119 appearances for SuperSport and his new coach at Sundowns, Pitso Mosimane has never hidden his admiration for Brockie, nicknaming him “The Sniper”.
He’s not scored since October, however. But that is was partly due to the pending transfer and the overall poor form of his now ex-club, who have managed a single win in 11 matches.
Mosimane will be hoping Brockie can regain his form as he didn’t come cheap, with a buy-out clause of R15 million, though the deal may have included an offer slightly less plus a yet to be named Sundowns player going the other way.
“I was lucky enough to win my first silverware here with SuperSport, and once I got that feeling of winning trophies I wanted to carry on,” said Brockie.
“That’s a big reason behind my move. I feel I needed a fresh challenge to get out of my comfort zone. I know I am going into a change room where there’s a lot of quality players and I am going to have to fight for my spot, even on the bench. That makes you want to improve and get rewarded.”
Brockie would not disclose the reasons why it took so long for him to move, but suggested it was incredibly complicated at times.
“It took a while because of a number of reasons, one of them being the fact that I was valued at SuperSport,” he said. “All transfers are never easy, but all parties ended up coming to an agreement... I can’t wait to put on the yellow shirt.”