Cassius Mailula is becoming one of the most talked about players of his generation, and his numbers have been incredible since his debut for Mamelodi Sundowns.
At the age of 21, Mailula has scored 12 goals and created three assists in 17 appearances in all competitions, of which five of those goals have come in the qualifiers and group stages of the prestigious CAF Champions League.
ThisIsFootball.Africa journalist, Joshua_Journo, spoke to a former Masadawana defender Matthew Booth to get his thoughts on the young man from Limpopo.
“Mailula, with the type of goals that he scores, means he is a typical box poacher, that’s how I would describe him,” Matthew Booth told ThisIsFootball.Africa.
“Those who are old enough to remember a striker called Emilio Butragueno for Real Madrid, who was known as the vulture, Cassius reminds me very much of Butragueno. Because he could smell a tap in, he was very quick to recognise an opportunity within the box, a classical finisher.”
Cassius made his debut for Sundowns in September 2022, after he joined the academy in 2016 but was soon promoted to the DStv Diski Challenge side, which is seen as the PSL Reserve league side. At the moment, he averages 86 minutes per goal, and is on course to winning the PSL Player of the Year award, should he continue in this fashion.
“Cassius is unusual in that I don’t think there is any other striker like himt in the PSL,” continued Booth.
“But certainly we should be very careful about talking about him going overseas. I firmly believe that players should have at least two good seasons, above average seasons before they get called up to Bafana, or start talking about going overseas. But from a development point of view if he should have another good season with Sundowns then certainly he should be looking overseas to progress.”
As previously shown, with the likes of Quinton Fortune and Benni McCarthy, the sooner they leave for Europe the better their chances of being a success. Recently we have seen former Orlando Pirates Lyle Foster being signed by Burnley in the Championship of England. But he left South Africa early in order to adapt to European life and football.
