Table of contents for July 2020 in Kick Off

ALSO LAST MONTH… • Orlando Pirates midfielder Ben Motshwari recovers from COVID-19 to resume light training in early June. • Benni McCarthy says he believes Percy Tau could break his record of 31 goals for Bafana Bafana. The 26-year-old Tau currently has nine goals. • Highlands Park striker Peter Shalulile admits the R30-million price tag the club has put on his head is making it difficult for him to leave the club. • Bidvest Services CEO and Wits chairman Alan Fainman refutes media reports that the club could be sold. • GladAfrica Championship log leaders Ajax Cape Town extend the contract of veteran defender Rooi Mahamutsa to the end of July in the hope he can help them complete their promotion push. • Two Benfica players were hospitalised after the…

Serbian striker Samir Nurkovic has proven to be the best signing that Kaizer Chiefs have made since Ernst Middendorp took over as the coach. He arrived as an unknown who had played almost all his football in Slovakia and his signing prompted just about all local fans to search for his name on Google. On face value, what came out the research was not appealing as he had struggled to last longer than a year at any of the eight clubs he had been with since he started playing first team football in July 2011. However, he has really made the best of time at Chiefs, quickly establishing himself as the main striker. Nurkovic knows how to hunt when the situation demands and never gets tired of searching for an…

1 Daniel Mudau Starts/goals: 260/110 ‘Mambush’ was a busy forward whose game revolved around his pace and scoring goals. By the time the PSL came into life he was already an established forward with his break into topflight football having come back in 1992. He played in the PSL from age 28 onwards but still scored at an average of 2.36 games per goal, after having slammed another 70 in the NSL era. He was slow off the mark into his PSL career but then after turning 30 his scoring numbers for the next four seasons read 26, 21, 23 and 17, proving how much of a serial scorer he was, even into his 30s. Though relatively tiny in build, he compensated his lack of physique with commitment that is…

Happy Jele 24 appearances (2 goals) Suspensions have been the reason why Jele hasn’t played in the three games he has missed this season. As captain he has been a commanding leader and has contributed two goals to the cause as well. He was in the starting line-up under ‘Micho’ Sredojevic and remained a vital cog under Rhulani Mokwena, featuring in 11 out of 14 games, while under the Germany Zinnbauer gaffer he has played every minute. The one-club man has gone about his duties like the experienced man that he has become and is always the first to stand up when the going gets tough. No coach would be tempted to sacrifice a man who has won it all in domestic football and played in both the CAF Champions…

KICK OFF: Was coaching something you were always interested in? We know you have a family farm as well that you ran for a period … Owen da Gama: It was not something I thought about so much while I was playing, but when I was at Beerschot in Belgium we would be asked to go on Saturday mornings to coach the youngsters, just to motivate them a bit. I really enjoyed it so maybe that was the start of something for me. You later became player-coach at NSL side Leeds United. How did that come about? It was in 1988. I had been at Spanish side Figueres but could not get a work permit due to the sporting boycott of South Africa that was in place because of Apartheid.…

KICK OFF: What goes through your mind when you think about your longevity in the game? Lebohang Mokoena: It is by the Grace of God that I have been able to continue doing what I love up to now. I believe that it is something that I was born to do. The guidance from my parents can never be understated because family background lays the foundation towards self-discipline and preparing for the future. Most players tend to think they are now the head of the house just because they are earning a salary and that is because they don’t have a strong family backbone. If your parents are still alive you will remain a child, even if you were to earn R5-million. You need to abide by the principles that…

KICK OFF: Pierre, thank you for taking the time to speak to us, it’s great to hear your English is still up to scratch! Pierre Issa: [Laughs] No I’m trying hey, I try to keep talking a bit and so far, it’s still okay. I’m based in Athens now; I have an office here and one in Paris. But my family, we all based in Athens. What took you to Greece? I have lived here since I got my job with Olympiacos. My wife also liked the place and I did too. We decided to keep living here, while I keep running my business, but my father is originally from Lebanon. So for context, you were born in Germiston, South Africa, right? Well, my mom was born in South Africa…

This is a very difficult time for everyone. There are other countries that have decided to end their leagues and there are countries that have decided to forge ahead, and by doing so observed all the health issues and protocols. If the league ends, that means a team will be crowned champions. But if I’m on the team that is fighting relegation, what comes of it? This is the same thing that happened to Bongani Zungu in France with Amiens. Another issue which concerns me a lot is the financial aspect – what happens if the league goes beyond the June 30? Will the players definitely get paid? Moving on to the following season – what is going to happen? Are the [PSL] teams going to have enough money? Will…

Sundowns still shine bright It’s not an easy task for a professional outfit to lose four high profile players and continue with their form as if nothing had happened, and following the loss of Tefu Mashamaite, Reneilwe Letsholonyane, Kingston Nkhatha and Mandla Masango, Kaizer Chiefs were never the same. They had just won Absa Premiership under the guidance of coach Stuart Baxter in 2015, but Chiefs have not won a trophy since. Contrast that with Mamelodi Sundowns, lost five of their most high-profile players in the trio known as CBD, Leonardo Castro, Khama Billiat and Keagan Dolly, as well as Percy Tau and Bongani Zungu. Still they have managed to win championships and stay at the top of the local game. Under the guidance of award-winning coach Pitso Mosimane, the…

When Keletso Makgalwa arrived at the 2014 SAB Under-21 Provincial Championships representing Limpopo, he was an ambitious 17-year-old, pumped up as much by the pace he had as his teenage enthusiasm. His gusto was driven by naivety at times, but there was no blaming him for that having never played in a structured football programme. He was a kid who had played first team football in the fourth-tier SAB League from the age of 15, when he started out at Dynasty FC and then moved to Yster United. “All I ever did to be able to compete at that age was to outrun my opponents,” he chuckles. His selection to the SAB Championships held in the North West province that year came on the back of impressive showings for United.…

Moeneeb Josephs The time I came on against Uruguay … wow. I was on the bench and the number two in the squad, and Itumeleng Khune gave away a penalty and then got a red card! You know, you get so engrossed in the game and what is happening, that you don’t always think straight. I turned to Shu-Aib [Walters] and said to him, what the f**k is Khune doing, is he f**king mad? Now we don’t have a goalkeeper, what the f**k are we going to do? Shu-Aib just looked at me a bit strangely and said, ‘what are you talking about, you have to go on?’. At first I told him that this was not the time for jokes, but then it dawned on me. S**t, he was…

From being capped at every level in junior international football there is a feeling that Lebohang Mokoena’s Bafana Bafana career was a disappointment as he won just eight caps. “I cannot be saying “disappointment” when opportunities were few and far between,” says Mokoena. “I don’t think I was ever given enough time considering that in the Under-23s I was always scoring important goals. “In the Bafana set-up it was all different because I was playing in a different position as well. Prior to the AFCON in 2006 I was part of the squad but then it never took off the way I would have wanted it to,” he responds.…

There was always an element of doubt about whether Alain Amougou would live up to expectations at Mamelodi Sundowns after arriving as a replacement for the ever-popular Nigerian Raphael Chukwu, who had left for Italian club Bari ahead of the 1999/00 season. Most pundits had also chosen to ignore, or forget, that Amougou had been the reason why Sundowns were knocked out of the CAF Champions League earlier in the year by tiny St Louisienne from the Reunion Islands in a stunning upset. Amougou struck a brace in the second leg that was played in the Indian Ocean nation and The Brazilians took note of the lively dreadlocked forward. Upon further digging, they found out that the left footed striker was a Cameroonian born in France, who had been in…