After all the rumours and speculations about Khama Billiat’s future, Kaizer Chiefs ended up capturing the ‘big fish’ after the Soweto giants officially announced him on the 22nd of June. During the January transfer window, Billiat was heavily linked with Qarabag FK from Azerbaijan as a replacement for our very own Dino Ndlovu.
The Azerbaijan giants who play in the UEFA Champions League were ready to pay Billiat R500 000 a month, but reports from Azerbaijan said the club couldn’t meet Sundowns’ asking price of R30 million.
R30 million may sound ridiculous but that’s how the football market is all over the world. In 2017, Real Madrid paid €45 million, which equates to just over R694m, for a 16-year-old Vinicius Jr to join the club in 2018, something unheard-of. As crazy as that sounds, that’s just how the football market is today.
Kaizer Chiefs are known for not spending ridiculous amounts on players and they calculate all their deals accordingly. Amakhosi, unlike others, are not bullied in the transfer market and are a much more organised team that pay players according to what they’re worth and not what the crazy market suggests.
In January 2018, Mamelodi Sundowns were reported to have paid R12 million for 30-year-old Jeremy Brockie on a three-year deal. That’s just to get the deal over the line, the club will still need to pay him a monthly salary of plus-minus R500 000 for three years. The whole deal will work up to around R30m after three years, which is a little less than what Chiefs would be paying Billiat over the same timeframe.
When you look at it from a greater scale, Billiat’s deal to Chiefs proved to be pricy, but shrewd at the same time.
Written by Banele Pikwa
