BECAUSE HE’S WORTH IT?

Bafana striker bought for record R205m

Lyle Foster’s record-breaking move from Belgian club KVC Westerlo to English Championship pacesetters Burnley FC this week came after four years of toiling in four different outfits in less glamorous European leagues.

The 22-year-old Johannesburg-born striker’s deal surprised even his agent Lorenz Sleeuwaert who confirmed to the Sunday Times from Belgium on Friday that Burnley paid €11m (R205m) for Foster, breaking South Africa’s highest transfer fee which was held by Bafana Bafana’s alltime scorer Benni McCarthy.

Spanish side Celta Vigo paid €6m (R111m) for McCarthy’s signature in 1999 when they bought him from Dutch giants Ajax Amsterdam.

“It’s more like Westerlo benefitted the most out of this deal. Even the club from Portugal (Vitoria Guimaraes) who picked him up from Monaco still got 15% of this deal,” Sleeuwaert explained. Sleeuwaert, who also manages another Bafana striker, Luther Singh (Foster’s cousin), had thought Foster would have had a better chance of being snatched by a big club in England at the end of the current campaign.

Foster started his European career when Orlando Pirates sold him as an 18-year-old to French club Monaco in 2019. The Bafana striker played for Monaco’s Under-21 side before appearing only twice for the senior team. He was loaned to Belgium outfit Cercle Brugge before being sold to Guimaraes in August 2020.

The permanent deal to Westerlo only materialised after Foster had been loaned to the same club by Guimaraes in June 2021.

Foster, who grew up in Noordgesig on the cusp of Soweto, still holds the record of the youngest Pirates player to score an official goal with a strike against Polokwane City in 2018 when he was just 17.

Foster has represented South Africa at Under 17, 20 and 23 level and made his Bafana debut in a Cosafa Cup match on June 3, 2018 against Madagascar when was still 17. He has since played eight more matches for the senior national side, scoring his first international goal in the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier away to Morocco in June last year.

“I was completely taken aback because Foster had only moved to Westerlo (for R18m from Guimaraes SC) in July last year,” said Sleeuwaert who will soon move to Manchester to help Foster get used to his new environment.

“He was still settling at Westerlo but his impressive form of eight goals in 21 matches in the Jupiler Pro League (Belgium’s first tier league) obviously attracted a lot of interest in the January transfer window. Westerlo didn’t want to let Lyle go because they too had great ambitions. That’s such a big deal and amount.”

Sleeuwaert said Westerlo were the biggest beneficiaries of Foster’s four-and-half-year transfer to Burnley. Foster will be working with former Belgium and Manchester City skipper Vincent Kompany at The Clarets — the side on the verge of bouncing back to the Premier League next season.

Foster could make his Championship debut when Burnley, who are five points clear of Sheffield

I was completely taken aback because Foster had only moved to Westerlo (for R18m from Guimaraes SC) in July last year

Lorenz Sleeuwaert

Foster’s agent

United after 28 games, visit Norwich City at Carrow Road on Saturday.

“Kompany knows about Foster and our league a lot. He knows that players who do well in the Belgian league have a chance to also do well in England. They already have three players from Belgium and the three have already proved themselves in the Championship.

“Obviously with Lyle being young with great skills and all the basics to make it right, he’s got Kompany who wants to work with him, grow him into the league and give him the opportunity. The speed Lyle has is amazing. He was one of the top three fastest players in Belgium. Of course he’s a very strong, big guy and this makes him a complete fit for English football,” said Sleeuwaert.

Technically and in terms of skill, Foster is not the greatest of the strikers that South Africa has produced since its readmission to international football in 1992. Foster’s resilience in Europe, where many South African players with greater potential easily give up, gives him a chance to be noticed even by those who don’t know him.

Foster’s growth in stature was noticeable in the goal he scored for Bafana against Morocco. His presence will be crucial as Hugo Broos’s side try to qualify for the 2023 Afcon with the outcomes of two back-to-back games against Liberia in March likely to seal South Africa’s fate.