South African national team record goal scorer has mocked the current crop of players in South Africa asserting they are not hungry and have no desire and ambition to play beyond borders.
The FC Porto, Blackburn and Ajax forward revealed this in an interview with BBC Sport Africa and admits it’s the reason why Bafana Bafana performances are wanting of late.
“I don’t think our South African players have that hunger, desire and ambition to play against the best players in the world,” he told BBC Sport Africa.
“To play against the best teams in the world or to play in the champions league or in the Europa League.
“I think our players are happy to be in South Africa, happy just to be good on one continent, but not to expand their wings or to go to Europe and struggle.”
McCarthy also admits that there will always be difficulties when a player goes to Europe before he settles but he will be much better soon because of playing against the best players.
“When you come to Europe, you will struggle but it will pay dividends because when you go back to Africa you’ll see how you stand out because in Europe you’re playing against the best players in the world period.”
In the 90s and early 2000s, South Africa was a force to reckon with winning the 1996 Africa Cup of Nations, reaching the finals in 1998, as well as playing at the 1998 and 2002 World Cups.
McCarthy attributes the success to the quality of leagues and clubs where most of the squad played then.
“That is what my generation had – look, I played in Ajax and Porto, Quintone Fortune was at Manchester United, Steven Pienaar at Ajax and later Everton, Shaun Bartlett Charlton, Lucas Radebe Leeds, Aaron Makoena at Blackburn Rovers and the rest. We had so many players pushing it at the highest level.
“Don’t get me wrong maybe we were not the best or important players at our clubs – but because we were learning, whenever we came back home, we put what we had been through to make Bafana Bafana great,” he explained.
“Now almost all of them are comfortable just being at home and even the few who go out are not a mainstay in their teams. We need good characters.”
South Africa’s has struggled to impress at recent Afcon tournaments and even failed to qualify on many occasions recently.
