Legendary Goalkeeper Coach Alex Heredia Wants a Ban on Foreign Goalkeepers in South Africa

Legendary Goalkeeper Coach Alex Heredia Wants a Ban on Foreign Goalkeepers in South Africa

Keba Mothoagae
updated at April 12, 2023 at 8:04 PM
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  • Former Bafana Bafana goalkeeper coach Alex Heredia has called for a ban on foreign goalkeepers in South Africa
  • Heredia, who was once also in the service of Orlando Pirates and Mamelodi Sundowns, was concerned with how many foreign netminders there were in the Premier Soccer League
  • The Argentinian is of the opinion that with more locals between the sticks, this will see a marked improvement in their quality

The renowned former Bafana Bafana goalkeeper coach Alex Heredia believes that local teams should be banned from signing foreign goalkeepers.

The 64-year-old Argentinian thinks that this would result in local glovemen having increased opportunities, and thus increasing their quality. Heredia was once also on the books of Orlando Pirates and Mamelodi Sundowns.

alex heredia
Goalkeeper coach Alex Heredia with former Bafana Bafana coach Gordon Igesund. Image source: Kick Off.
Source: UGC

According to Goal, every Premier Soccer League club, except Stellenbosch FC and Kaizer Chiefs, has a foreign goalkeeper, with the majority of them being first-choice stoppers.

Heredia said to SowetanLIVE:

“I think the first thing we have to do is to identify the problem. We have got the 16 teams in the PSL with the majority of them, about nine or 10, their number one goalkeepers are foreigners. One of the potential solutions is for the next several years, SA, Safa or whoever it is that is entitled to make the rules, to implement a law that doesn’t allow the use of foreign goalkeepers.”

Heredia, citing the Egyptian Premier League's decision to bar goalkeepers from outside the country, added:

“We saw what happened in Egypt, no foreigner can play in the senior league and they produced a lot of quality goalkeepers."

Goalkeeper Coach Alex Heredia describes possible Ronwen Williams move to Mamelodi Sundowns as a career suicide

Ronwen Williams moving from SuperSport United to Mamelodi Sundowns would not be a good career move.

As reported on Sports Brief, this is according to legendary goalkeeper coach Alex Heredia. The Argentinian is well travelled in South Africa, having served in this role at Orlando Pirates, Mamelodi Sundowns and Bafana Bafana.

Williams has been pushing for a move from Matsatsantsa to the cross-town rivals as he chases much-desired silverware.

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