Thursday saw worrying statistics revealed in the race for the DStv Premiership top scorer award, which showed that South African strikers are misfiring at a concerning rate. Last season’s top scorer, Mamelodi Sundowns’ Peter Shalulile, currently leads the charts with nine goals, despite missing six matches due to injury not so long ago.
Shalulile is two goals ahead of Kaizer Chiefs’ Bonfils-Caleb Bimenyimana and SuperSport United’s Bradley Grobler, who have both been struggling in front of goal in 2023. Bimenyimana has not found the back of the net this year, while Grobler has done so on one occasion, in a victory over Cape Town City three days into the new year.
What should concern Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos is that six of the top 10 top scorers in the DStv Premiership this season are foreigners. Shalulile, Bimenyimana, Etiosa Ighodaro, Darwin Gonzalez, Junior Mendieta and Ranga Chivaviro are the six foreigners who feature in the list. The South Africans strikers who make the top 10 are Grobler and Cassius Mailula, while Neo Maema and Pule Mmodi, who also feature, either play on the wings or in advanced positions behind the forwards. At 35, Grobler is the only experienced South African-born striker on the list, with Mailula only in his first season in the topflight.
The worrying statistics of South African strikers misfiring in the DStv Premiership could be a major concern for Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos, with options being thin for the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Liberia.
The top scorer list currently looks like this:
Peter Shalulile – 9
Bonfils-Caleb Bimenyimana – 7
Bradley Grobler – 7
Etiosa Ighodaro – 7
Cassius Mailula – 6
Darwin Gonzalez – 5
Neo Maema – 5
Pule Mmodi – 5
Junior Mendieta – 5
Ranga Chivaviro – 4
Peter Shalulile, his 9th goal of the season | DStv Premiership top scorer
Bhebhu-moya the stalker thought He had arrived in SA not knowing the Namibian sniper was busy testing his hunting rifle
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