Former Pirates striker struggling to find a new club

Justine Shonga has gone from a high-flying Orlando Pirates fans darling to hopping from club to club looking for a contract.

Shonga was surprisingly released by Pirates at the beginning of last season and he briefly joined Marumo Gallants (then Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila) before heading to Cape Town City.

He stayed there for a season and couldn’t make any impact and was then released at the end of the last term. He trained with AmaZulu and there was a possibility he could be signed.

“I don’t know what went wrong because he looked good in training and Benni (McCarthy, the AmaZulu coach) liked him. But I think there were issues with their foreign player quota and they had someone else in mind,” said a source.

“He is now at Callies where he is on trial as they want to see his fitness levels before signing him. But it looks good and he is the kind of player that Joel Masutha (Callies coach) likes,” said the source.

Shonga didn’t score a single goal in 13 league and cup appearances for City last season, and has managed just one goal in his last three seasons in the South African domestic game.

The Zambian international did score three times for Zambia in July in the 2021 Cosafa Cup, including a brace against Botswana in a 2-1 win.