Mamelodi Sundowns ambassador and spokesperson Tiyane Mabunda has opened up on the club’s overseas recruitment system that saw the likes of Gaston Sirino, Lucas Ribeiro, Ricardo Nascimento don the famous Brazilian yellow and blue kit.

The Tshwane giants’ recruitment strategy has come under a lot of scrutiny after failing to win the elusive CAF Champions League in the last 10 years, despite being the biggest spenders in Africa in 2024 and 2025, according to FIFA’s annual Global Transfer report.

Mabunda has come out to defend the club, claiming that the club’s high cash splashing aligns with its ambition to become one of the continent’s dominant institutions.

Sundowns currently have Marcello Allende (Chilean), Nuno Santos, Miguel Reisinho (Both Portuguese), Arthur Sales (Brazilian), and Bryan Leon on their books for the 2025/26 campaign, with Argentinian Mathias Esquivel on loan after struggling to adapt in South African football.

“The recruitment system that has been established at Sundowns came when we had a vision of turning the club into a global brand and understanding different dimensions of football played in Europe,”  Sundowns ambassador and spokesperson Tiyani Mabunda told SNAWA.

“So we’re trying to find the balance, in which we have enough players to compete continentally and players who bring different dimensions and elements of European football or South American football, then we blend it together because Mamelodi Sundowns has been [known as the Brazilian, so we need to live up to that name] South American feeling….

“The players from Europe and South America do bring an impact in how we play, because we need to be fair enough to say the kind of football we want to play, the dimension and level in which sundowns wants to see itself, at a global stage, as a global brand, we also need players that are able to compete at a technical and tactical level in football.”