South Africa’s football export problem exposed as Kenya gains ground in Europe

South Africa is falling behind Kenya in placing players in Europe’s leading football leagues, despite having substantially greater financial resources invested in the sport, according to football agent Matthew Moore.

Moore, the son of legendary agent Rob Moore, said South Africa’s limited presence in the European market should be a concern for the country’s football authorities, clubs and agents.

Speaking on Sports Night Amplified with Andile on Metro FM, Moore pointed to the growing number of Kenyan players appearing across European leagues and questioned why South Africa has not achieved a similar level of representation.

“I was just really looking through it before I came on you and they have players playing in Holland, they have Denmark, two in France, we have AIK in Sweden, Valencia, Celta Vigo, Sociedad, two in Charlton Athletic, Wrexham so why is it that you know us as a nation we have a lot of more to invest into the game than you know countries like Kenya why don’t we have that kind of representation abroad,” Moore said.

South Africa has recently seen several promising players move overseas. Olwethu Makhanya joined Rangers, Thapelo Maseko moved to Copenhagen and Relebohile Mofokeng transferred to Union Saint-Gilloise.

However, Moore stressed that those players need to succeed if South Africa is to strengthen its reputation and build greater confidence among European clubs in the country’s talent.

His comments come as questions continue to be raised about the number and value of South African players moving to Europe. Moore said his agency, Centre Circle, had completed 23 transfers from the markets it represents Japan, South Africa, Australia and the United States to European clubs over the past five years.

Those moves included players joining high-profile sides such as Bayern Munich, Anderlecht, Eintracht Frankfurt, Rangers, RB Leipzig and VfB Stuttgart.

Despite the scale of that work, Moore said only two of the 23 deals involving players from those markets had exceeded €1m.

“In those 23 out of those 23 transfers only two of them have been for more than a million euros from all these other countries from all the other countries only two of them,” Moore revealed.

He believes the main obstacle for South African players is not a lack of ability, but the fees being demanded by clubs in the domestic market.

“I think we are pricing our players out of moves to Europe and I think you know a lot of a lot I’ve seen other you know I’ve watched the show I’ve seen other agents come and they say the same thing but trust me when I say like no one has done more moves to Europe than us in the past five years of any South African agency,” Moore said.

Moore’s comments highlight the commercial challenge facing South African football as clubs seek significant transfer fees while European sides remain cautious about investing in players without an established track record abroad.

South Africa’s recent transfers, including those involving Makhanya, Maseko and Mofokeng, could therefore prove important beyond the individual careers of the players involved. Their performances may influence whether more European clubs are prepared to recruit from the country and whether South Africa can close the gap with nations such as Kenya.

The debate comes amid wider discussion in South African football, including a reported friendly for Bafana Bafana and continued backing for coach Pitso Mosimane from veteran administrator figures.