Bafana Bafana legend Shaun Bartlett has stressed the importance of equipping yourself with coaching knowledge and urged South African footballers to leave the country for overseas clubs.
The 49-year-old tactician, who is currently in charge of NFD club Cape Town Spurs, was discussing his former Bafana teammate Benni McCarthy's recent appointment as a first-team coach at Manchester United.
"It's great for a coach to get that recognition and to get an opportunity to coach at Manchester United. The other thing that people don't realise is that you have educated yourself also in order to get there," Bartlett told Football and Friends.
"We might have played at the highest level for great teams in the Premier League and obviously, Benni having won the Champions League title. But in order to get to a club like that, you need to educate yourself.
"That is something both of us (Shaun and Benni) have done over the years while we were playing and post-playing which is to make sure we get proper qualifications to go all with the experience and knowledge that we have in order to pass it to the next generation."
Just like McCarthy, Bartlett is a Uefa A License holder, but the former possesses a Uefa Pro License which is the highest world-recognised qualification in football having earned it in 2018.
Bartlett, who was part of South Africa's 1996 Afcon title-winning squad, also hopes more South African players will leave the country for overseas clubs as they could help bring back Bafana Bafana's glory days.
"Hopefully also our players will start realising that there are better things outside of South Africa because that is the one negative at this moment in time," the former Charlton Athletic striker added.
"We don't export enough players. During our time more than 80 per cent of the players played abroad and Bafana Bafana benefitted from that."
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