The lockdown series – the PSL’s top strikers

PSL 2019/20 Striking Sensations

Gabadinho Mhango of Orlando Pirates. Photo by Lefty Shivambu/Gallo Images)

Gabadinho Mhango

Games played (in all PSL competitions) – 22

Goals scored (in all PSL competitions) – 15

Malawian striker Gabadinho Mhango is arguably the player to have benefitted most from Josef Zinnbauer’s arrival at Orlando Pirates in December. Mhango has quickly become the Buccaneers’ star man, after an inconsistent start to his Pirates career. In 2020, before the coronavirus stopped the campaign in it’s tracks, Mhango had banged in eight league goals, taking his total to 14 for the season in the Absa Premiership, and 15 in all competitions.

Bradley Grobler of Supersport United celebrates a goal with teammates during the Absa Premiership 2019/20 match between Supersport United and Kaizer Chiefs at Mbombela Stadium, Nelspruit, on 04 January 2020 ©Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePix

Bradley Grobler

Games played – 28

Goals scored – 15

At 32 years young, Bradley Grobler is having his best season in the Absa Premiership since he netted 13 goals for Platinum Stars back in the 2010/11 campaign. Grobler is on target already to beat that league tally, with 12 strikes already for Matsatsantsa this season, and 15 in total as he also has goals in the MTN8 (which SuperSport won) and the Telkom Knockout. Grobler had a superb start to the season, with four goals in August in the league and one in the MTN8. And he also had a fine start to 2020, netting six times before the season was halted.

Peter Shalulile of Highlands Park (Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePix)

Peter Shalulile

Games played – 33

Goals scored – 15

Highlands Park chairman Larry Brookstone might have gone a little overboard recently in describing Namibian striker Peter Shalulile as better than Mamelodi Sundowns exports Percy Tau a and Keagan Dolly. Shalulile, however, is certainly making a major impact in the PSL this season, with 12 league goals already for Highlands Park, and three more in the Nedbank Cup, which included the equaliser in the last 16 victory over Kaizer Chiefs. That was the last of six goals that Shalulile netted in four consecutive matches in February, shooting his way up the scoring charts.

Bonginkosi Ntuli of AmaZulu FC (Photo by Darren Stewart/Gallo Images)

Bongi Ntuli

Games played – 26

Goals Scored -12

Here is a crazy statistic. AmaZulu have manged to score just 14 goals in 24 matches in the Absa Premiership so far this season and Bongi Ntuli has 12 of them. That’s over 85 percent of AmaZulu’s league goals that have been netted by the 29 year-old in comfortably his best ever top flight campaign. Usuthu, indeed, have won just six league games all season and in all of them Ntuli has scored at least once, including the winners this year at home to Polokwane City, and amazingly away to Kaizer Chiefs in AmaZulu’s final game before lockdown struck.

Samir Nurkovic of Kaizer Chiefs celebrates a goal during the Absa Premiership 2019/20 match between Kaizer Chiefs and Cape Town City at the FNB Stadium, Johannesburg on the 12 January 2020 ©Muzi Ntombela/BackpagePix

Samir Nurkovic

Games played – 24

Goals scored – 12

In terms of goals-per-game, Nurkovic is actually third on this list, average on every other game, a superb effort in his first season in a Kaizer Chiefs shirt. The Serbian marksman is also a superb all round striker, with three assists to his name as Amakhosi have stolen a march at the top of the table for much of the 2019/20 season. He scored both goals in Chiefs’ 2-0 win at Sundowns in October, that laid down a marker about Chiefs’ seriousness in the title race, and also added a hat trick against Bloemfontein Celtic in December.

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