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Cape Town - Cape Town City FC announced the return of Cape football's "prodigal son" with the appointment of Benni McCarthy as the club's new head coach on Tuesday.
City owner, John Comitis reintroduced McCarthy to the Mother City's football scene when unveiling the Citizens' new coach before sharing their ambitions moving into the 2017/18 PSL season.
The 39-year-old - who has been given his first role as head coach in his managerial career - told journalists how he was quickly convinced by Comitis to take over the reigns at the Cape-based club.
"I knew when I saw the boss' (Comitis) name flash up on my phone, what the call was about," McCarthy said.
"I was kind of hesitant to answer the call because I thought to myself, there goes my five-year plan of finishing my badges (UEFA Pro coaching licence) and then getting experience and gradually educating myself - which was my initial plan.
"As soon as I picked up the phone it was almost impossible to get a word in and tell the chairperson about my plan and he told me to just come home and see him, then we can see.
"But I knew as soon as I got on that plane, I'm not ever coming back to Scotland, McCarthy said.
Comitis confirmed that City would continue their philosophy of playing an exciting brand of football and that he and McCarthy shared the same idea of how the team should play.
"You just have to look at the type of player he was, when at the age of 17 he played for us at Cape Town Spurs against Kaizer Chiefs where he scored two goals.
"Immediately after the game Kaizer called me and he said, 'where did you find this footballer because I haven't seen a player with such football intelligence in a long time,'" Comitis said.
"I think that if Benni can instill intelligent play into what we have, this attractive, attacking style of football will continue but we'll be assessed by what we do on the pitch," he concluded.
