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Not many coaching appointments at Manchester United have been as public and high-profile as Benni McCarthy’s as an attacking coach.
Players have credited him for their improvement, and Erik ten Hag has also stressed his importance multiple times.
However, his path to United was not a smooth one.
The Daily Star reports McCarthy’s first experience in Amsterdam after he moved as a starry-eyed player from the South African team Seven Stars.
Amsterdam’s Red Light District area is famous worldwide and for McCarthy, it was an unforgettable experience.
He calls the area “fascinating”, saying that his “eyes popped out of my head” looking at “nearly-naked and beautiful women in the windows”.
He hilariously compared the situation to his home country in a stark bit of contrast.
“They were calling me. If you tried to speak to a woman in Cape Town they’d chase you away like a dog,” he said, adding that it took him a while to “get my head around that”.
Red Light District was not the only thing that fascinated him about Amsterdam, though. He said that he loved the “cosmopolitan” vibe of the city and called it a “very safe place” with the smell of marijuana coming from every building.
McCarthy spent two fruitful seasons at Ajax which yielded 20 goals in 36 appearances. It prompted Celta de Vigo to make him the most expensive South African player of all time when they bought him for €6 million.
He would go on to have a great career, with the Champions League win with FC Porto, scoring two goals to knock out Manchester United in the process a career-high.
However, among all these moments, McCarthy remembering his travels to the Red Light District in Amsterdam so vividly means that it must have left a huge impression on him.
