Mamelodi Sundowns coach Rulani Mokwena has praised new signing Junior Mendieta and feels he’s got a lot of very good qualities that suit the Brazilians’ style of play.

The Brazilians secured the signing of Mendieta as one of four new signings alongside the likes of Lesiba Nku, Lucas Ribeiro Costa, Thapelo Maseko.

The 30-year-old completed his move from Stellenbosch FC to Sundowns after he dotted down a five-year contract with the Brazilians.

The Argentine brings a wealth of experience and bolsters their attacking options, having 5 goals and 15 assists on 79 appearances across all competitions during his time with Stellies.

The wingers also has experience playing for Deportivo Morón, Lanús, Los Andes and Atlético de Rafaela in Argentine before making the move to South Africa.

“Mendieta provides us with dynamism especially in that number 10 position,” Mokwena told his club’s official website.

“He’s a 10 that can project himself into a 9 and that gives us good versatility with regards to how we want to play, the schemes [and] the organisational forms that we can adopt. He’s got a lot of very good qualities that suit the way we want to play.”

“He’s got a very good capacity from a motor qualities type of perspective and then also he’s very aggressive in his football actions – particularly his counter pressing and pressing actions were very important for Stellenbosch for the last couple of seasons, particularly his influence in trying to win the ball in an area is closer to the box.”

The Sundowns mentor has since revealed that he has been impressed with Mendieta’s qualities as a player, including his work ethic and attitude.

“The one thing that a lot of people don’t know about Mendieta is that on set-pieces he’s very strong, both in terms of the technical delivery of his contribution of set-pieces and also on defensive set-pieces,” he added.

“He’s got a very good elevation [and] he was extremely important for Stellenbosch on how they defended their set plays.

“He brings a lot of qualities to our team, he’s also got the mentality, he is extremely humble [and] he works very hard. We saw it also on Mandela Day where he painted the entire wall all by himself.

“He ticks a lot of boxes from a technical and tactical perspective but also from a personality perspective, [he is] the type of player that we like – passionate, aggressive and extremely competitive.

“Of course also the fact that he comes from a football nation like Argentina where they are extremely obsessed about the game and you could see that passion and that aggression.”