‘I probably underachieved’: Benni feels he could have done better in playing career

Benni McCarthy admits to a certain — and to many it would be a surprising — bitter-sweetness at what he achieved in his playing career.

McCarthy was arguably South Africa’s most successful export of the modern era. He won trophies including three league titles in Europe, played for top clubs and scored goals on one of the highest stages in the English Premier League.

Perhaps his Uefa Champions League medal, becoming the only South African to win one, with FC Porto under Jose Mourinho sets McCarthy apart from even Lucas Radebe, who captained a strong Leeds United, as South Africa’s most successful foreign-based player.

However, revealingly, McCarthy admits there is a nagging sense he could have done more, especially for Bafana Bafana, even though the striker ended as the national team's all-time top scorer with 31 goals.

He alludes to the “sourness” of the relationship with the national team as part of the reason for not earning more caps. The South African Football Association (Safa) and too many Bafana coaches would call up McCarthy for meaningless matches, not understanding the pressures of keeping a place at a top European club. 

Weight and fitness issues, as his career declined in his later years at Blackburn Rovers then West Ham in his early 30s, cost McCarthy a place in Bafana’s 2010 World Cup squad as hosts, though many felt he should have been there.

At club level, a move that did not materialise to Chelsea is a regret for the former player, whose respect on the international stage is displayed by having served as forwards coach for Manchester United from 2022 to 2024.

“I probably underachieved. Not that I’m sell myself short, [but] I could have probably done better, more, especially when it came to playing for Bafana,” McCarthy said, asked how much pride he feels about his playing career.

“I think there was just a complete sourness, bitterness. I played about 80 [79] appearances, I could have probably made 120 or 150, probably could have scored 70 or 80 goals.

“But all of that went missing because of the spiel of club vs country, [people and headlines saying] ‘Benni doesn’t want to play’, but nobody ever walked in my shoes.

“If you were faced with what I faced, it [the understanding] would have been completely different. I’m gutted I didn’t fully play to the potential I could have for Bafana.

“Yeah, maybe not achieving [a bigger move] when Chelsea tried to sign me when I was at Porto [and again] when I was at Blackburn, and it never materialised because the clubs didn’t want to sell me.

“When you sit back and think, I would have been proud of that, [to play in] that Chelsea team, formed a partnership with [Didier] Drogba, what would have happened?

“Because at that stage of my career I think I was probably one of the best African players — myself, Samuel Eto’o. Drogba came a bit later.

“At that time I think there were not many African players in the prime and the level I was reaching.

“Ja, listen, my career probably wouldn’t have been better - we never know what would have happened.

“I’m happy with what I achieved and somehow disappointed I didn’t achieve my full potential.”

It’s an honest and many will say hypercritical viewpoint expressed from the player-turned-coach whose forthright opinions were welcome and unusual — though could also, mostly wrongly, complicate his relationships, especially with Safa.

McCarthy achieved a lot. He burst onto the scene as a teenager, scoring close to 40 goals in less than 50 games for Seven Stars and broke into Jomo Sono’s Bafana squad for the 1998 Africa Cup of Nations, where his seven goals as joint top scorer helped the defending champions end runners-up.

Moving at a month past 19 to Ajax Amsterdam, McCarthy quickly established himself in a star-studded line-up that won the 1997-98 Eredivisie and KNVB Cup that campaign and again in 1998-99.

At Celta Vigo in Spain he won the 2000 Uefa Intertoto Cup, then at Porto won two league titles, the 2004 Champions League and three cup trophies.

At Blackburn McCarthy was the second-top scorer (18 goals) to Chelsea’s Drogba (20) in the 2006-07 Premier League.

His career in Europe gradually declined after that, ending with an unsuccessful spell at West Ham in 2010-11.

Yet McCarthy returned to South Africa for a successful swansong with Orlando Pirates, helping them to the second of their back-to-back trebles in 2011-12, where Bucs won the league, MTN8 and Telkom Knockout.