South African legend Benni McCarthy lauds Danish great as a great inspiration to him

Benni McCarthy remains the only South African player to have won the UEFA Champions League trophy.

This was in 2004 when Bafana Bafana’s all-time leading scorer was with FC Porto under former Manchester United and Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho.

That it’s been 20 years and no player has surpassed McCarthy’s achievement is testament he was a man who had a special inspiration. McCarthy then went on to play in Portugal, England and Spain after his stint at Ajax.

And he revealed to Pulse Sport.

“And yeah, I had the pleasure and honour to play with Michael Laudrup, and he was the greatest player I’ve played with,” said McCarthy who is now in charge of Kenya senior national team.

“I had the honour to play with Michael Laudrup when I was at Ajax, a young player coming through, and you see the professionalism. He was the first ever player to have made the switch from Real Madrid to Barcelona and then back to Real Madrid,” McCarthy said.

“Oh wow, I’ve never seen when you were a 19-year-old kid and you play with somebody like that, like wow. If you don’t learn anything in life, then football is not for you. It’s not your sport.”

McCarthy's Harambee Stars are in Antalya, Turkey, where they will play friendly matches against Senegal, on Saturday, and Equatorial Guinea, four days later.