Bafana Bafana striker Lyle Foster is now a Premier League regular. Is the ex-Orlando Pirates star now Burnley’s best performer?
EX-ORLANDO PIRATES PLAYER FOSTER IS SA’S PRICIEST-EVER STAR
Benni McCarthy was formerly the most expensive South African footballer ever when Celta Vigo paid Ajax €6m (R113 million) for his services. After Benni, Joburg-born playmaker Steven Pienaar was the second-most expensive. In 2011, he moved from Everton to Tottenham and fetched a fee of €3.6m (R67.6 million). The guaranteed fee that Burnley paid to Westerlo for Lyle Foster’s services shattered the record held by Benni since 1999. The Clarets paid €7m upfront, with a further €4m of add-ons triggered because of their promotion to the EPL. Foster’s move amounted to something approaching a staggering R225 million.
The best player in a poor Burnley side to get relegated
The Lancashire club paid a fee rising to €11m to sign Foster, and there’s no reason why a host of other Premier League clubs wouldn’t jump at the chance of signing the hard-working South African for around double that at least. Foster scored five goals and provided three assists in 24 top-flight appearances in 2023-2024; 22 were starts. It’s no exaggeration to say he was arguably their best player, and to produce those numbers in a side struggling at the basement is a superb achievement.
Market values and life in the second tier
2024-2025 could end in promotion to the Premier League for Burnley and Foster. They sit third in the English Championship and remain in the hunt for automatic promotion; they’ll earn that honour if they finish the regular season of 46 matches inside the top two places. Otherwise, teams placing third to sixth contest a pair of two-legged semifinals and then a final at Wembley. In October 2023, Foster was valued at €13 million; that number has dropped to €9 million now that the Clarets are a Championship Side. That might change by May, though. And if he continues to be one of their most reliable performers, they could fetch a big fee by selling him to a top EPL side.
Will Foster bounce back to the Premier League?
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