Mngqithi: Sundowns let Liverpool signing Diaz and Real star Vinícius slip away

Mamelodi Sundowns co-coach Manqoba Mngqithi says Liverpool's £37m (roughly R767,786,000) January signing, Luis Diaz from FC Porto, was once on the Pretoria club's radar as was Real Madrid's Brazilian starlet Vinícius Júnior.

Mngqithi made the bold claim at Tuesday evening's Nedbank Cup last-32 launch in Sandton, Johannesburg.

Mngqithi confirmed the signing of Bolivian international midfielder Edwin Saafreda from Club Bolivar. He was asked about Downs' effective scouting network in South America that brought quality players such as Brazilian centre-back Ricardo Nascimento, Uruguayan playmaker Gaston Sirino and strikers Leonardo Castro (Colombia) and Mauricio Affonso (Uruguay) to Chloorkop.

“We've got a good network of scouts who are doing good work for us. But technology is also helping us,” Mngqithi said.

“We use data to compare and sift and come closer to what we are looking for.

“If we are looking for a dribbler, right or left-footed, who's got a high number of assists, goals, box entries and all these things, we look at this before we even look at the player.

“We have lost a lot of players. One of them has signed for Liverpool now, can you believe it? We should have signed him before he joined Porto.

“We were on top of Diaz, unfortunately we delayed one or two days and he signed for Porto.

“We have looked at a lot of players. You will think I am lying when I say even Vinícius was on our list of players we should have signed.

“We saw him in the Brazilian cup and we were trying to chase him and we slept a little bit, the next day he signed with Real Madrid.”

Colombian Diaz, 25, played for Barranquilla in his country's Primera B, then Junior in Primera A before signing for FC Porto in Portugal in July 2019.

Brazil under-15 to senior international Vinícius came through the youth structure of Rio de Janeiro giants Flamengo, making a senior debut at 16, signing at that age for Real in May 2017.