It has become a trend now to see South Africa players returning home after a short stint overseas and one cannot help but wonder as to why are our players are failing overseas.

Former Bafana Bafana coach Ted Dumitru has blamed it on poor development structures in South Africa, but I tend to differ in my assessment, as many players who come from teams with no development academies have gone overseas and made names for themselves.

A typical example of this is Benni McCarthy, who emerged from within the now defunct Seven Stars who were campaigning in the lower league when he was snapped up by Celta Vigo, following a short stint at Ajax Cape Town.

Benni has since gone to become Bafana Bafana?s all-time leading goal-scorer and a well-known figure, not only in the England where he is currently playing for Blackburn Rovers, but worldwide.

There are in fact many players who ? like Benni ? continue to make names for themselves abroad, despite not coming through development academies, leaving Dumitru?s argument falling a bit flat.

The truth is that our players fail as a result of following poor advice from greedy agents who are not looking after the player's interests, but instead are looking after their own pockets.

An example of this was when Bernard Parker was advised to join financially unstable Serbian side Red Star Belgrade. After going for months without pay the Bafana star soon found himself back home ? luckily for him he found a home at FC Twente.

It is clear, in this case at least, that Parker's agent did not do his homework because prior to Parker's move to Serbia, reports of Red Star's financial woes were already known.

Like Parker, Bafana midfielder Siyabonga Nkosi ? a regular Bafana player before his move to Arminia Bielefeld ? now finds himself back at home after a short stint in Israel. Nkosi spent most of his time on the bench at Bielefeld, and then again in Israel, and that resulted in him losing his place in the Bafana squad.

Benedict Vilakazi, Stanton Lewis, Siyabonga Nomvete, Lance Davids ? all Bafana players ? are also back home after failing to make an impact overseas.

They too were victims of poor management from their agents who are in it for the money. A good agent would do his homework and check the player's strengths, weaknesses and whether the league suits the player before deciding to send his player there. But no, as long as the money is good the agent will simply tell the player that "You will make more money there than in South Africa".

Granted, money rules the world, but the truth is that money alone does not guarantee success!

  • Do you agree with Khaya? Are soccer agents failing our stars? Let us know what YOU think!