Table of contents for October 2020 in Kick Off

When Kaizer Chiefs were enjoying their great start to the new season, it was difficult to see them dropping the ball and losing the title at the end of the campaign. The last time that happened was in 1987 when they needed just a draw from the remaining three matches of the season, only to lose all of them and surrender the title to eventual winners Jomo Cosmos. It was difficult to see a repeat of that though and most people – myself included – got that absolutely wrong. It just shows how unpredictable football can be. The last 35 minutes of the match against Baroka FC, the league trophy was on its way to Naturena, only for Manuel Kambala to get that equaliser which turned the tables around. Chiefs…

For all the blame that was directed at Ernst Middendorp, the past season was the best points tally that Chiefs have had since they last won the league in 2014/15 under Stuart Baxter. In the first year after Baxter left, Chiefs managed 46 points, finishing fifth in what was Steve Komphela’s first season in charge. The following season Komphela totalled 50 points for fourth place, which was then followed up by a third-place finish at 48 points in the 2017/18 season when the Bafana Bafana captain was forced out towards the end of the campaign. The 2018/19 season totalled only 39 points and was the worst and lowest tally that they have managed since the NSL kicked in, and was only superior to the 36 points of 1985 because back…

We started this season very well and believed right through that we had a chance of winning another league title. We didn’t talk about it, but we believed it from the coach [Gavin Hunt], players and people at the office. But out of the blue we were informed that the club had been sold. Just like that. We were told that there would be no more Bidvest Wits from next season. It was just a normal day before a training when we were officially informed that the club had been sold. We felt it was unfair, as the club should have made us aware of this early so that we can prepare for next season. By the time they addressed us, we were all emotional, but we had no choice…

To air your views, email your letters to forum@kickoff.com The views expressed in the letters published do not reflect the views of KICK OFF magazine, its editor, publisher or CT Media Publications (Pty) Ltd. The editor reserves the right to edit and shorten letters. Letters shorter than 200 words will be given preference. Please note there are no prizes for star letters at this time. I’m disappointed with Chiefs I’m so disappointed, that Kaizer Chiefs players let the team down, it is the same mistakes every game. The coaches have tried their best, chopping and changing players, but with no results. The players of Chiefs must know they had to deliver. Only two or three players were on top form, the rest were not up to task. The new season…

Lebohang Maboe might have ended the past season with just four goals but his hat-trick on the last day carried the most weight as those were the goals that ferried Sundowns to the league title. Maboe slammed a second half hat-trick against Black Leopards, becoming the only player to score three times in the second half during a league match this past season. The 26-year-old was also the fifth player to bag a hat-trick through the 2019/20 season following Charlton Mashumba, Samir Nurkovic, Gabadinho Mhango and Fagrie Lakay. Mashumba hit three as Polokwane City lost to Cape Town City 5-3 last November, while Nurkovic also struck three times in Kaizer Chiefs’ 5-3 win over Bloemfontein Celtic the following month. Malawian forward Gabadinho Mhango scored a first half hattrick against Polokwane City at…

Edmilson Dove was captain of the Mozambique national team before the COVID-19 pandemic and after a good start to their 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualification, hopes to raise his profile higher at the continental finals in Cameroon that have now been shifted to 2022. Mozambique are in a qualifier pool with the hosts, Cape Verde and Rwanda, and have four points from their opening two games after a 2-0 win over the Rwandans and a credible 2-2 draw in Cape Verde. “I am quite sure about that, it is our main objective [to qualify],” he said. “International football was cancelled for all of us this year, but we were in a good moment when the pandemic came. “What I always say when I chat with my national teammates is we…

The passion with which Ricardo Mannetti speaks about Peter Shalulile portrays just how much the mobile forward operates in always giving his all. “I met Peter when he was 16 years old while playing for Tura Magic,” recalls the former Namibian national team coach. Ricardo Mannetti He adds: “I coached him in the national Under-20s when we were invited to the Bayhill Cup in Cape Town in 2011. His breakthrough came when we played a friendly against Swaziland in 2014 and he made his debut as a left-back. “He was eager to get into the national team that he started playing left-back at his club as well, because he saw there was an opportunity there. It was a smart move from him since we had problems in that position at…

GOOD MONTH FOR… MAMELODI SUNDOWNS Two more trophies under their belt in the space of just a week and an historic ‘Treble’ for The Brazilians, who confirm their status as the team to beat in South Africa’s domestic competitions. Who can knock them off their perch? BAD MONTH FOR… KAIZER CHIEFS It was seemingly an Absa Premiership title in the bank, but Chiefs’ capitulation in the Gauteng bio-bubble was both spectacular and desperately disappointing for their longsuffering fans. The trophy wait goes on… ALSO LAST MONTH… • Kaizer Chiefs axe coach Ernst Middendorp and his assistant Shaun Bartlett days after they are pipped to the Absa Premiership title by Mamelodi Sundowns. • Polokwane City part ways with coach Clinton Larsen after they are relegated to the GladAfrica Championship. • Swallows…

Mamelodi Sundowns’ 59 points title win last term was the eighth time since the PSL became a 16-team league at the beginning of the 2002/03 season that less than 60 points have been needed to win the league. Sundowns won with 57 points in the 2005/06 season and two years later SuperSport United needed just 54 points to lift the first of their three league titles in a row. Matsatsantsa won all three with under 60 points as they garnered their second with 55 before sealing their third with a total of 57. Then in the 2011/12 season Orlando Pirates’ triumph was earned with 58 points before Kaizer Chiefs won it with 57 the following campaign. In the last season that Sundowns have been champions a similar total of 59…

Burundian defender Valery Nahayo is adamant that it would have been a mistake for Thembinkosi Lorch to join a second division club in Belgium following the interest that came from Percy Tau’s former side Royal Union Saint Gilloise. Nahayo spent eight years playing in South Africa for Jomo Cosmos, Kaizer Chiefs and Mpumalanga Black Aces, before moving to Belgium in 2011, where he remains resident up to this day having played for KAA Gent, and then lower division clubs KSC Lokeren-Temse and FC Ganshoren. “Royal Union Saint Gilloise would have been way too low a team for Lorch to join. I mean, it is a second division team here in Belgium,” says Nahayo. “The problem with us Africans is that at times we are too desperate for teams in Europe.…

An artist uses a canvas to paint a masterpiece. A musician combines an assortment of instruments – a flute, horn, guitar, cello, piano, violin, or saxophone to create an everlasting song. But, there is a breed of footballer that is equally blessed with the ability, not to just create a song, but the kind of music with their feet to leave a lasting impression. Brazil had Pele, a man who conjures images of football in all its glory and beauty that often-left multitudes dancing the samba on the streets of Rio de Janeiro. Argentina had Diego Maradona, he of the infamous ‘Hand of God’, Portugal nicked Eusebio from Mozambique and those fortunate enough to have watched the ‘Black Panther’ at his prime swear to this day that he was slicker…

Picture this. You land in South Africa in anticipation of a move to your new club, only to end up sleeping at the airport on a chilly night in Johannesburg. You then make your debut without having signed a contract, and only being handed R300 for groceries as ‘signing on fees’. Years later, you are denied a move to Kaizer Chiefs when your club prices you out of the market before your playing career suffocates into the lower divisions and you end up taking employment as a glorified security guard. Add to that, you cannot travel to your home country for over 20 years due to fear after your father – who was a soldier under Mobutu Sese Seko – dies in prison after being detained by the new president,…

1 Central midfielder Manuel Nyanga Kambala was born on August 21, 1991 in the seaport town of Quelimane, located in the Zambezia province in Mozambique. He is third of eight kids. “We were six boys and two girls but one of my sisters passed away,” he says. 2 He has carried the nickname ‘Telles’ since he was a toddler. “I was told that as a little kid I loved sitting in front of the television to watch whatever was showing on the screen, so my family nicknamed me Telles, which short for televisao in Portuguese.” 3 The Mozambican international is building a second house a walking distance to beach on the outskirts of his hometown. He already owns another property in the same town, which he built while playing in…