Mashamaite Joins
Swedish Outfit
Swedish club BK Hacken have confirmed the signing of former
Kaizer Chiefs defender Tefu Mashamaite on a two-and-half-year deal. Hacken,
who are currently ninth on the 16-team Allsvenskan table after 18 games,
announced the signing on their official website. “We are very proud that a
player of his quality chose us. We have followed Tefu for a while and when the
opportunity came up, there was no hesitation to sign him,” said sporting director
Sonny Karlsson. “He is a left-footed player with a great understanding of the
game, he is strong in the air and has been team captain, which is also an
important piece of the puzzle.” The 30-year-old parted ways with Kaizer Chiefs
following the expiry of his contract at the end of June and has been on a club
search since, including a trip to the US where he trained with New York City.
Mashamaite started 40 games for Amakhosi last season and was named the PSL
Footballer of the Season.
Golden Arrows have reportedly
re-signed Andile Fikizolo on loan until the end of season. The striker
joined SuperSport United from Thanda Royal Zulu at the start of 2014/15, but
spent the second half of the season on loan at Arrows, where his seven goals
played a big part in their promotion from the First Division. But with
Matsatsantsa having the likes of Jeremy Brockie, Kingston Nkhatha, Bradley
Grobler and now Fagrie Lakay on their books, it was decided to give Fikizolo a
chance of more regular game-time elsewhere. SuperSport have also loaned out
defender Jino Moeketsi to Vasco da Gama and
Thabo Moloi to AmaZulu.
Orlando Pirates coach
Eric Tinkler insists he will not rest captain Oupa Manyisa unless the
midfielder asks him to do so. ‘Ace’ has hardly had a break in three years,
having played for the Buccaneers in CAF competitions and Bafana Bafana in
international matches during the off-season. While there has been some fear
that Manyisa could struggle for fatigue in the new season, Tinkler insists he
is not planning to rest the midfielder, who has played more than 180 matches
for the Buccaneers without proper rest in the last three years. “He will come
and tell me when he needs a break. He doesn’t want a break now,” Tinkler said. “Against
Sfaxien he told me ‘Coach, we are 2-0 up, let me have some rest’, so we pulled
him off. But because this is the press, I’m not going to make any decision
because you have a feeling that he needs to be rested. I spend every day with
him, you don’t. Look at a guy like Cristiano Ronaldo, how many matches he plays
a season, but you never hear about fatigue.”
Mamelodi Sundowns
have handed Xolani Mdaki with his clearance to join Vasco da Gama. The
22-year-old midfielder, who had a short stint in Sweden with Djurgardens, has
since joined the First Division side, having previously played for Santos. Mdaki
had trials with Free State Stars last month.
Polokwane City coach
Kosta Papic has explained the reason behind his absence during their opening
league win over Bloemfontein Celtic at the Peter Mokaba Stadium on Saturday. Papic’s
absence from the bench with City raised eyebrows as the Serbian coach watched
the game from the stands. Former Orlando Pirates goalkeeper Nkueni Mayala sat
on the bench as the Limpopo-based side beat Celtic by 3-2 during the exciting
game at the Peter Mokaba Stadium. “It’s the issue of the work permit. That
was the only reason why I did not sit on the bench,” Papic said. The
Serbian coach expressed happiness at the way Rise and Shine played against
Siwelele, and is hoping that his team will maintain consistency this season. It’s
a good start. I am happy with the way we started, and I hope we maintain the
same [level of] performance throughout the season. We have set no target but to
play good football and try to get good results as often as possible,” adds
Papic.
Orlando Pirates could complete the signing of Yasser Mugerwa
this week, according to an official at the midfielder’s club Uganda Revenue
Authority. Mugerwa and Ugandan compatriot Saidi Kyeyune were
recently on trial at Bucs, with the former impressing management at Mayfair. Kyeyune,
however, has since returned to Kampala after failing to win the favour of Eric
Tinkler and his technical team. URA general secretary Henry Mayeku confirmed
the side is in talks with Pirates regarding the services of Mugerwa. “Kyeyune
is back with the club. We hope to finalise the deal with Yasser with Pirates in
the next five days,” he added.
While Sfaxien’s
players were frustrated by Orlando Pirates’ show-boating in their Confederation
Cup clash, Bucs coach Eric Tinkler welcomes it provided it’s used
constructively. Sifiso Myeni was criticised by Sfax players for his tricks
following Pirates’ 2-0 victory on Saturday which leaves them strongly poised to
reach the semi-finals of the competition. Thabo Rakhale is another Buccaneer
that delights in entertaining the crowd with his nifty footwork, and Tinkler
approves such play as long as it benefits the team. “I’m not going to make such
a big deal out of it. I’ve always stated this before, as long as it is in the
right areas and has positive reasons that will benefit the team,” Tinkler said.
“They [Sfaxien] obviously didn’t like it. It’s Kasi flavour, they need to get
used to that. But I’ve stated this before, as long as it is in the right areas,
that’s what is important.” Tinkler, meanwhile, was pleased with the result
which lifted Pirates level with Egyptian giants Zamalek at the top of Group B
with nine points from four games. Zamalek’s 1-0 loss at AC Leopards on Sunday means
the Congolese outfit still have a chance of advancing to the last-four. “It was
important for us to collect three points to move to nine. That was the
objective to get to nine points as quick as possible because I always felt that
those points should be enough to get to the semis.”
Arsenal Academy of
London won the 2015 Durban U-19 International Football Tournament after
defeating PSV Eindhoven of Holland 2-1 in a hard-fought final on Saturday at
Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban. Goals from Ben Sheaf and Yassin Fortune on
either side of the half were enough to give the Young Gunners victory in their
maiden appearance at the tournament. Earlier in the day the South African U-19
team beat VFB Stuttgart of Germany 2-0 to claim bronze in the third/fourth place
playoff. Masilake Phohlongo and Keletso Makgalwa scored in the 34th and 63rd
minutes respectively, with the latter being named Man of the Match. The other
teams that took part in the tournament were the KwaZulu-Natal Academy Team,
Galatasary (Turkey), AC Milan (Italy), and Celtic (Scotland).
Kagisho Dikgacoi
played 77 minutes as Cardiff City were held to a 1-1 draw by Fulham on the
opening day of the English Championship season. The Bafana Bafana
midfielder hardly featured last season as he was hampered by injuries, but
started alongside Peter Whittingham in central midfield against his former
club.
Veteran midfielder, Lefa Tsutsulupa is
looking for a new club, as Moroka Swallows have chosen not to offer him a new
contract. The Birds are trimming their costs drastically following
their relegation, and they have been forced to part ways reluctantly with
players they would otherwise have kept under different circumstances. Had
Swallows avoided relegation, Tsutsulupa might well have been offered a technical
post, but now he is clubless. “The club didn’t renew my contract – it was not
my decision, it was the club’s decision,” the 35-year-old former club captain
said. “Of course I was interested to play in the NFD but unfortunately that
will not happen. Sometimes you have to accept things. But I’m not going to give
up on football as yet. I’m still looking to play football at another club. I
still have what it takes to carry on playing football,” Tsutsulupa
insisted. The dreadlocked midfielder made close to 300 appearances during a
decade with the club, and helped them win the Nedbank Cup in 2009 and the MTN8
in 2012. Tsutsulupa earned seven national team caps and also played for
Bloemfontein Celtic and Jomo Cosmos; making his PSL debut in the 1999/2000
season.
Tokelo Rantie missed
AFC Bournemouth’s opening English Premier League game due to a family tragedy.
Rantie was not in the Cherries’ match-day squad for their game against Aston
Villa, as there was a death in the family. The Bafana Bafana was in South Africa
for the funeral. Bournemouth’s next game in the Premier League will see them
travel to Anfield next week Monday to take on Liverpool.
Polokwane City
striker Puleng Tlolane will get a new car for being the club’s top scorer last
season. Rise and Shine boss Johnny
Mogaladi made the offer live on Thobela FM last Thursday night after Tlolane
finished 2014/15 with 11 goals in 21 starts.
South Africa’s hopes
of making it to the knockout stages of the FIFA Under-17 World Cup in Chile
later in the year have been given a boost after they received a good first
round draw. Molefi Ntseki’s side have been pooled with North Korea, Costa
Rica and Russia for the tournament, which will be played from October 17 to
November 8. The team will play all their pool matches at the Estadio Municipal
de Concepción in Concepción, starting with a clash against the Costa Ricans on
October 19. Three days later they face
North Korea, before closing out their pool play with a match against Russia on
October 25. They will need to finish in the top two in the pool to advance to
the second round, or as one of the four best third-place finishers in the
six-group competition. If they win the pool they will play the runner-up in
Group D that contains Belgium, Mali, Honduras and Ecuador. If they finish
second in their pool they take on the top team from Group F which includes
France, New Zealand, Syria and Paraguay. South Africa are competing at the
global finals in this age-group for the first time.
Golden Arrows have announced the signing of Ryan Chapman on
loan from Bidvest Wits. The PSL returnees confirmed the news on
their website, saying: “Abafana Bes’thende have signed forward, Ryan Chapman on
a loan agreement from Bidvest Wits”. The striker spent last season on loan at
SuperSport United last term.
Bidvest Wits coach
Gavin Hunt has explained the club’s decision not to sign former Moroka Swallows
midfielder Lerato Chabangu. Chabangu joined Wits for the duration of their
pre-season, with the hopes of impressing the technical team and landing a deal,
after his former side were relegated to the National First Division. Despite
training with The Clever Boys for over a month, and even joining them on their
pre-season camp in Stellenbosch, Hunt says ‘Ace’s’ age was a factor he couldn’t
overlook, especially with youth players coming through in the same positions. “I
feel sorry for Lerato, because he trained with us. I and the club just felt
that we need to give our youth a chance,” Hunt explained. “It’s unfortunate,
because we’re in a position where we have Paseka [Sekese] (21), Phakamani
[Mahlambi] (17), [Mosiatlhage] Abednego (20) and Vincent Pule (23), and they
all play in the same area. I think it’s important that we put our faith in the
youth, but it’s unfortunate [for Chabangu], you know.” The ex-Swallows coach
also reveals that former SuperSport United and Mamelodi Sundowns midfielder
Brent Carelse, who was on the books of Cape Town All Stars last season, was in
a similar situation to Chabangu. “Brent trained with us [in Cape Town], but he’s
in the same situation. I mean, I’d love to have Brent and Lerato because
they’re clever, they know what to do. But Brent, obviously – same situation –
same players I’ve mentioned in that same position, so it’s important to give
our youth a chance. I think we’ve got very good youth players at the club, and
they just need [time]… Like I did last season, we had seven or eight players in
the team. I’ll do it again,” he adds.
Kwanda Mngonyama’s
agent Tim Sukazi admits that the player’s current situation at Mamelodi
Sundowns is of great concern and he is addressing the matter with the club. The
South Africa Under-23 international was on loan at Maritzburg United where he
started 24 games in all competitions in the past season, but he has returned to
Chloorkop where he is not even training with the first team. Sukazi says his
client’s situation is of national importance. “The issue of Kwanda Mngonyama is
of serious concern not only to me and Kwanda but also to SAFA’s national agenda
of having our U23s qualify for the Olympics, which will in turn be of great
benefit to the country,” Sukazi explained.
“We cannot have a situation where we have the current captain of the
U23s, which just qualified for the CAF 8-Nations tournament, not playing
football. It is not only that Kwanda is not playing football for his club,
Mamelodi Sundowns, in fact, he is not even training with Sundowns’ first team.
He is just training with a few other players who are training separately while
the club looks at dishing them out to other clubs. Kwanda told me that their
training is not even of high intensity or anything to make it a top-level
training. He says the few guys are just being taken through their paces as a
formality, which will obviously see them being eligible for their monthly
salary. So basically these players are just being eroded mentally and their
self-esteem will be severely affected to a point where it might take them time
to recover, even if they find alternative clubs. Sukazi further says there are
in fact three clubs interested in signing the player, but Sundowns have
rejected offers of over R2-million. “In Kwanda’s case, you have three clubs
interested in him, namely, Maritzburg United, Bidvest Wits and SuperSport
United. As I understand, all these clubs have tabled offers in millions of
Rands for Kwanda’s services and there has been no movement up to this point,”
Sukazi revealed. “A club like Maritzburg tabled their offer some three to four
weeks ago. We are aware that Sundowns is interested in some players at SuperSport
and Wits and Kwanda has been made a trade-off in those negotiations. All we
said to Sundowns is that they should rather separate the kid from the deals
that they are trying to secure with Wits and SuperSport. Our view is simply
that as it has become clear that Kwanda is surplus to Sundowns’ requirements,
he should be let go because other clubs see value in him as this is the fairest
and most humane way to deal with his future. I do acknowledge that Sundowns has
its own business imperatives but then the future and lives of people are
involved in these types of situations. In cases of players in respect of whom
no interest has been expressed, it is a different matter altogether. However,
in a case of a player that the club does not need and there are offers of R2m
and above, all they have to do is to let go of the kid. Sundowns’ stance on
Kwanda’s matter might even have more unintended consequences and I have already
alerted their management to these. I sincerely hope that sanity will prevail at
the Sundowns board and Kwanda will be allowed to play professional football,
which he so much deserves after doing very well while on loan with Bidvest Wits
and Maritzburg in the last two seasons.
Former AmaZulu
defender Carlington Nyadombo has agreed to join Polokwane City on a one-year
deal. Nyadombo has been training with City for the past week and has made
enough of an impression to win a contract following his controversial departure
from Usuthu after five years of service. Nyadombo briefly trained with Bidvest
Wits and Mpumalanga Black Aces before signing with Rise and Shine. The
29-year-old left AmaZulu when his contract expired in June after falling out
with the club’s management earlier in the year.
Bidvest Wits
confirmed two more signings on Tuesday night in the form of attacking players
Roggert Nyundu and Thulani Ngcepe. Wits coach Gavin Hunt confirmed after
his side’s 3-1 win over SuperSport United in the MTN8 quarter-finals that
Nyundu has signed a contract with the club. Nyundu had spent the last 10 days
training with the Clever Boys and featured in some of their pre-season
friendlies. Wits also revealed the signing of former SuperSport striker Ngcepe.
The 25-year-old has joined the club as a free agent and was in the matchday
squad against United. However, Nyundu still has a pending contractual dispute
with his previous employer Polokwane City, who have referred the contract row
to their legal department. Nyundu rose to prominence last season after scoring
19 goals while on loan at Black Leopards, which immediately ignited widespread
interest. He then also revealed that he had been earning a miserable R5 000 a
month as he sought – with the help of the South African Football Players’ Union
– to find a way out of that disputed contract, which he claimed expired on June
30.
South Africa Under-23
star Siphelele Ntshangase admits he will have to re-apply his mind to NFD
football if he is unable to move on from Black Leopards during this transfer
window. Ntshangase’s head has been turned by recent transfer speculation
linking him with Orlando Pirates and Mamelodi Sundowns, although Leopards have
been unwilling to let him go easily. In helping Owen Da Gama’s side qualify for
the 8-Nations tournament in Senegal later this year, Ntshangase was a focal
point of attention and showed great control of the ball while running at
Zimbabwe’s players with ease, playing without fear. After the game, he was
cagey when asked if he deserves to be playing in the First Division next
season. “I’m not gonna say that I deserve to play there in the NFD but I think
whatever happens, it will happen,” said Ntshangase. “If I go back to Leopards, I will go back.
Plus I have an offer at Chelsea … I’m joking! But I will definitely go back to
the club and my heart will have to re-adjust again.” Ntshangase admits going
back to the NFD will surely be huge psychological warfare in his mind but says
anything can still happen since there are offers on the table for him. “There
are offers but I can’t disclose it to you, really there are,” he said. “However,
what has happened before I came here for Under-23s, the club chairman Chief
Thidiela, we had spoken to each other and he told me ‘no my boy, your chance
will come’. Again, concrete offers are there. However, he told me I should wait
for this coming season but I don’t know what’s gonna happen [before the end of
the transfer window].”
Orlando Pirates have
parted ways with their physical trainer Japhet Borges and goalkeeper coach
Alexandre Revoredo. The Brazilian duo have left the Bucs camp after it was
alerted that their contracts have not been renewed ahead of the new season. Borges,
58, joined Pirates from Moroka Swallows in 2010, ahead of their first
treble-winning season, while Revoredo, 57,
joined the following season, in 2011, at the start of former coach Julio
Leal’s tenure with the Houghton-club. Having been spotted on the bench during
Saturday’s Carling Black Label Cup Soweto Derby, Okpara has now taken over the
goalkeeping department in a caretaker role until the club finds a replacement
for Revoredo.
The Premier Soccer
League has confirmed the prize-money on offer for this year’s MTN8. The
winner will once again pocket a cool R8-million, with positions 2-8 each
netting R800 000 for a grand total of R13.6-million.
Craig Rosslee, brought in to rescue Moroka Swallows at the end of last season but unable to keep the Soweto club up in the PSL, is back in the game as technical director at FC Cape Town. The National First Division club have appointed Dutchman Pieter de Jongh as their new coach and also employed Andre Bronckhorst, formerly with Santos and Bloemfontein Celtic, as goalkeeper coach. De Jongh comes to South Africa after working in Kenya, with Rosslee’s local knowledge there to support him. Rosslee also has spells at Ajax Cape Town, Orlando Pirates and AmaZulu under his belt. The latest appointments keep up the coaching merry go round in the Mother City, where only Tony de Nobrega retains his place at Vasco da Gama. Boebie Solomons has left Cape Town All Stars to join Milano United while Zeca Marques is new at Santos after departing Black Leopards, who narrowly missed out on promotion to the top flight last season. Dan Malesela is the new high-profile coach at ambitious All Stars, who will be competing for a second season in the NFD. The NFD kicks off on August 22.