After joining Toronto FC last year, Cassius Mailula lost the battle to play ahead of Lorenzo Insigne and Federico Bernardeschi, two Italian players.
He played just one season in the first team at Mamelodi Sundowns, scoring 15 goals in all competitions.
Chiefs have no Khune and no keeper worries
In the two appearances that he made in the MLS, he only played 17 minutes.
In the rest of the 24 games, he was mostly an unused substitute, just like he didn't get minutes in the three League Cup games.
His input improved in the Canadian Championship, where he scored twice (plus one assist) in three appearances despite playing in the MLS Next Pro League.
Ultimately, six appearances weren't what the 23-year-old wanted so he accepted Rulani Mokwena's offer to join him on loan at Wydad Casablanca.
"The problem was that when Cassius came here, two Italians (Lorenzo Insigne and Federico Bernardeschi) played up front," explains Dominic Sithole, a former University of Pretoria and Maritzburg United goalkeeper who now lives in Canada and plays football as well.
He was always going to be second fiddle to them, so they sent him to the reserve league (MLS Next Pro) and he was not happy about it.
It became a bit of a problem for him, so he decided to go out on loan.
"He tried moving to other MLS teams, but it didn't work out, and at one point they even offered him a position with another Canadian Premier League team, but he refused.
During that time, he pushed for a move to Morocco.
It wasn't a healthy relationship between him and Toronto because he felt like he deserved to play, but the team didn't want to give him the playing time he wanted because they preferred the experienced pair.
The thing about the MLS is that when they get these players from Europe, their contracts stipulate that they must play because they are being paid a lot of money.
Cassius faced that challenge since he would never be able to get game time and had to settle for playing in local games, which he didn't like.
Because they saw him as a future player, he was never going to get any game time here.
Sundowns pending decisions
During one of their coaching seminars, one of their coaches told me they weren't going to use him right now because they wanted him to develop.
Sithole, who also played for the African Warriors, says he had to learn the culture as well.
