Kaizer Chiefs Sporting Director Kaizer Motaung Jr. has revealed that the club engaged in negotiations with Stellenbosch FC to acquire left-back Fawaaz Basadien. However, the two sides were unable to reach an agreement on the transfer fee.
Despite having already signed seven new players this transfer window, Chiefs are still actively seeking reinforcements.
Basadien was a target for the Soweto giants, however, Motaung Jr. acknowledged that Stellenbosch has set a high asking price for the defender due to their reluctance to lose more key players.
“If you remember Rob Benadi’s comments, the CEO of Stellenbosch, he’s just waiting for the transfer window to close because it’s so destabilising,” he told Robert Marawa on Radio 947.
“I can imagine from a Stellies perspective, testament to them because Stellies did a tremendous job in recruitment, because everyone is talking about Stellenbosch players.
“So again, a top talent, great to see him in the international fold the other camp. I think he’s got great attributes. I don’t think there’s another team in the country that wouldn’t want Basadien – he has a great certain profile.
“A club of our nature wants to have quality players. We’ve had discussions with Rob, it’s not a secret, we made an offer to Rob before.
“He made it very clear about the price he had on Fawaaz. Again, when we re-engaged him again on the price, he made it clear they also want some stability.
“They lost Deano to Pirates, they lost Iqraam, Oura is gone now also. They also need to keep hold of certain players and our people need to understand it’s a two-way street, other clubs also want to keep their best players.”
When quizzed whether the door to Basadien is completely shut, Motaung Jr. said,
“The door on all quality players is never shut,” he quickly replied.
“All doors are open, we want to reinforce the team as best as we can. The doors are open and the cheque only has a certain amount of space.
“At the end of the day it’s also market-related. Everyone puts a value on their fact and they’re entitled to that [but] it’s got to make business sense.
“We try our best to bring the best.”