On Nov 9, 2017, a local publication wrote: “A picture of Mosimane alongside a Club Jorge Wilstermann’s head coach, Roberto Mosquera, is currently doing the rounds in Bolivia. As reported over recent months, Sundowns are looking to add two more strikers to their books in the near future as Mosimane looks for the missing puzzle pieces of his attacking department.”
But as fate would have it, Vargas, who had previously played his club football in Brazil and Belgium, struggled for form around November 2017 and had not scored a goal in four games. In fact, a video of that particular game shows the then 25-year-old striker only touched the ball 11 times. Seven touches in the first half and a mere four times summed up a man who was far from impressive.
Mosquera, a Peruvian manager, was on his way out of the club then. Perhaps his most trusted striker was slightly unsettled because of the team’s instability.
On the other hand, the man who would strike twice for Bolívar La Paz was none other than Sirino.
Understandably, the Downs’ scouting team couldn’t take their eyes off the slender, skilful forward who scored two goals in the opening 10 minutes of the game. His first goal came in the seventh minute and the second two minutes later.
During the next three weeks, Sirino was in unrelenting form, banging in four goals in three matches as if he knew a South African team was following him with a hawk’s eye.
“We were on a mission to find a towering striker for the Champions League,” Esrom Nyandoro “A tall, agile forward was our target.” The former Mamelodi Sundowns anchorman had been sent to Bolivia alongside then-head scout Walter Steenbok to provide a second opinion to Mosimane.
True to his solitary nature, Nyandoro chose to watch the game alone, away from the influence of Mosimane and Steenbok, to offer his unfiltered assessment. The final whistle blew, and Mosimane turned to the scouts for their evaluation.
“I knew we had come for Vargas, but the number 7’s performance blew me away. He scored two goals in ten minutes, created chances, and was simply impossible to ignore. That number 7 was Sirino, a player we couldn’t miss,” explains Nyandoro.
As Mosimane returned home to focus on the team, Steenbok and Nyandoro continued their Bolivian scouting adventure, their mission lasting an additional three weeks.
