Marked for Kabelo Sibande
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match14 May 2029
Position 1 and 73 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad14 May 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Mamelodi Sundowns may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market14 May 2029
Only the photograph left for Bennet Mokoena
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Bennet Mokoena will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Mamelodi Sundowns the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Loan watch14 May 2029
The goals keep arriving from Jody Ah Shene’s exile
19 goals in 29 games at Asante Kotoko — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Mamelodi Sundowns updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Market14 May 2029
Khuliso Mudau wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Mamelodi Sundowns hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Loan watch14 May 2029
The goals keep arriving from Kutlwano Letlhaku’s exile
18 goals in 30 games at Asante Kotoko — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Mamelodi Sundowns updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match16 Apr 2029
Position 1 and 73 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Thapelo Morena: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Mamelodi Sundowns have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market16 Apr 2029
Bennet Mokoena has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Mamelodi Sundowns they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Loan watch16 Apr 2029
29 appearances at Asante Kotoko and the goals keep coming. Mamelodi Sundowns are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Loan watch16 Apr 2029
30 appearances at Asante Kotoko and the goals keep coming. Mamelodi Sundowns are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Ronwen Williams was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match23 Sep 2028
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 5‑0 against Chippa United, and it could have been more.
Squad25 Sep 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
Defensive actions: 24, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad25 Sep 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mamelodi Sundowns this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market25 Sep 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Matías Esquivel will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Mamelodi Sundowns the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 22 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
Marked 9.63 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.88, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad25 Sep 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Siphelele Mkhulise, and the manager let it.