Heading for Chiefs

Bela-Bela Soccer Academy football player, the sensational Itumeleng “Messi” Mangwane, has put his signature on the dotted line for a two-year contract with Soweto giants, Kaizer Chiefs.

Further heart-warming news is that Mangwane has recuperated fully after being knocked down by a car during a road-running exercise in Hammanskraal earlier in the year.

The sombre news for soccer fans in the Waterberg though, is that Bela-Bela Soccer Academy goal-minder, Thabang Simelane, has returned home from a promising start at Polokwane City.

Academy coach Sam Modise said it was normal that when teams changed coaches, some players become casualties.

The Premier Soccer League team’s head coach, Bernard Molekwa, has since been replaced by the Slovakian Josef Vukusic.

Players such as the Bela-Bela goal-minder Simelane may not have found a niche in Vukusic’c plans going forward.

As for Mangwane, although he has been signed to play for the Kaizer Chiefs under-19 side, at that age it becomes a posibility that the youngster to be blooded into the senior team.

Recent negative results by the Kaizer Chiefs senior team may as well open up opportunities for the likes of Mangwane to raise his hand to be considered by head coach, the Italian, Giovanni
Solinas.

— The BEAT