Staff Reporter.
Mamelodi Sundowns co-coach coach Manqoba Mngqithi has confirmed the club has signed Bolivia international Erwin Saavedra and registered the player for their CAF Champions League campaign.
Saavedra is away on national team duty but is expected to link up with his new teammates this week.
“Saavedra, we have signed. We have registered him for CAF as well. We have sealed that one. He is a very good player,”Mngqithi told reporters.
Saavedra came through the development ranks at Bolivian side Bolivar and first played as an 18-year-old in 2014.
He has spent his entire career there, bar a brief loan spell in Brazil’s Serie B with Goias in 2017, and has 47 league goals in 192 starts for his side.
That includes 17 goals in 41 starts in the 2019 season, his best return to date, though he managed 10 goals in 22 starts in 2021.
He is a potential long-term replacement for the Uruguayan Gaston Sirino, who has signalled his intention to leave the club at the end of the season.
Meanwhile SuperSport United have confirmed the loan capture of Ivory Coast defender Bangaly Soumahoro from Tshwane rivals Mamelodi Sundowns, following hot on the heels of their signing of Sifiso Ngobeni.
Soumahoro has been barely used at Sundowns in the last three-and-a-half seasons, making only three substitute appearances in the league as he was often the odd one out when they had to make room in their foreign quota.
The 30-year-old will hope to reignite his career at SuperSport, having only made 31 starts in seven years in the DStv Premiership.
“We have young players like Luke Fleurs, Kegan Johannes and Thatayaone Ditlhokwe, who are the first-choice centre-backs, and he [Soumahoro] will bring some experience to our team,” coach Kaitano Tembo said.
“We brought in Sifiso Ngobeni to bring more depth into the team especially in the left-back position. Currently we only have Onismor Bhasera, who recently came from the 2021 Afcon in Cameroon with Zimbabwe, so we really needed cover in that area.”
Both players will return to Sundowns at the end of the season. The Brazilians signed midfielder Teboho Mokoena from SuperSport in the January transfer window.