Josta Dladla has opened up about how Patrice Motsepe wanted to turn Mamelodi Sundowns into the biggest club in Africa after purchasing it from the Tsichlas family back in 2004.
Dladla, who spent five years with the Brazilians, also spoke about how Motsepe changed the way South African footballers were being paid.
“… When he took over, South African players were still being paid small salaries. He came and took it to another level, and the people who have been running the game called him out and were like, ‘What are you doing? Why are you paying these players so much?’ He didn’t care,” Dladla said on the George Mokoena Podcast on YouTube.
“He understood that the money that we are going to make in a 10-year career has to last you for the next 70 years,” said Dladla, who also spent six years in the colours of Kaizer Chiefs.
“With no disrespect to the ones that started the league, but when I was at Wits, I think the highest paid players were paid R15,000 or R20,000. Now, Mr Motsepe comes in and gives people R200,000.
“Now, you still have players at certain big teams paying players R25,000, which was okay because they were getting R5,000 from where they came from. It’s a big jump, but it’s still not a lot of money.”
According to Dladla, Motsepe also wanted the players to show that they were well paid by driving the most expensive cars.
“That guy even wanted us to drive the best cars. He used to shout at Surprise for driving a Toyota Conquest. He would ask who the owner of that car is, and we would respond that it belongs to Surprise (Moriri).
“He would shout, ‘Surprise, I’m paying you a lot of money to drive such a car’. He (Moriri) ended up buying an Audi A3, but the Conquest was still there.
“He would remind us he is paying us a lot of money, so we must buy houses.”
IOL Sport
