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Cape Town - Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Pitso Mosimane says Leonardo Castro leaves the club with his blessing, and he's confident the striker will succeed at Kaizer Chiefs.
The Brazilians announced the sale of the Colombian to Amakhosi on Friday, which comes as no surprise with his contract set to expire at the end of the season.
Castro netted 15 goals in his debut campaign and providing the perfect foil as a deep-lying forward for wingers Keagan Dolly and Khama Billiat to thrive in more advanced positions.
Winning the league in record-breaking fashion along with the Nedbank Cup and the CAF Champions League made the South American an instant hit.
However, injuries and off-the-field problems curtailed his progress with Sundowns as Castro failed to score in 14 appearances in the league last term, while in the 2017/18 campaign he's only seen 75 minutes of football.
"Leo was a big part of us when we got 71 points to win the league," Mosimane told IOL website.
"You can say that he is the one who brought the South American influence to us now. He has done well.
"He is still a very good player, you must see him at training. But there comes a time when you must accept that he needs to move on.
"We will remain with the memories of the CBD (made up of Castro, Khama Billiat and Keagan Dolly). No one can write that off. He scored 15 goals in all competition when we won the league.
"He had his own personal issues that we don't want to talk about, and we supported him on that. He was forever not around, being in Colombia. But you've got to support that.
"What a good football player. He never missed training. He gave his best. It just didn't work out. It's one of those things that you ask yourself, the guy was scoring goals in his first season and the following season he wasn't. What happened? Injuries hurt him. But there were a lot of issues.
"I believe that Leo will score against us. Just like Samuel Julies, Bongi Ntuli and RamaG (Rodney Ramagalela) who has fun when he plays against us. You must expect that Leo will want to show us that we shouldn't have let him go."
