Marked for Sifiso Phiri
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Apr 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SuperSport United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Nadir Yakoubi breaks a bone — 34 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 34 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad3 Apr 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” SuperSport United may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad3 Apr 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 SuperSport United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Apr 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lawrence Nicholas and SuperSport United agree another 4 years.
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
The board have put money on the table rather than an encouraging word. What happens to it now is somebody else's problem, and somebody else's job.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad17 Jan 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ronwen Zwane
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SuperSport United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match15 Jan 2028
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑0 against Free State Stars, and it could have been more.
Market17 Jan 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings17 Jan 2028
Two goals and a mark of 8.43 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The terraces17 Jan 2028
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Siyabonga Manyama was one of the reasons people came, and $160.0K does not replace that by itself.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Sifiso Phiri: 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.” SuperSport United have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match15 Jan 2028
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Ronwen Modiba 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
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 55. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market1 Nov 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at SuperSport United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad1 Nov 2027
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Sifiso Phiri: 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.” SuperSport United have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match30 Oct 2027
7 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Ronwen Modiba 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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Anthony Uzodimma falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Boardroom1 Nov 2027
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Match30 Oct 2027
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Mamelodi Sundowns will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 52. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
A brace, and Dean Manyama takes the afternoon — 7.98
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Dean Manyama provided it, and the 7.98 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Ronwen Modiba 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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at SuperSport United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dean Manyama is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad20 Sep 2027
At 27 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
A performance of 8.18 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad20 Sep 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Férney Angulo and SuperSport United agree another 4 years.
Market20 Sep 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. SuperSport United know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 79. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad16 Aug 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Erick Kekana
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SuperSport United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market16 Aug 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad16 Aug 2027
“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 ratings16 Aug 2027
A brace, and Themba Zwane takes the afternoon — 8.25
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Themba Zwane provided it, and the 8.25 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match14 Aug 2027
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Thulani Manyama 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Sifiso Phiri has improved at 27, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Apr 2027
Dean Dala 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.
Boardroom5 Apr 2027
The board have put money on the table rather than an encouraging word. What happens to it now is somebody else's problem, and somebody else's job.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Babacar Sarr asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad5 Apr 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match2 Jan 2027
4‑0, and Dean Manyama took the headlines on an afternoon when everything SuperSport United tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Market4 Jan 2027
Galatasaray come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and SuperSport United did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Dean Manyama takes the match ball home
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
No sign of nerves from Dean Manyama at 20 — 8.15
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Dean Manyama did not need any: 8.15, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad4 Jan 2027
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad4 Jan 2027
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and SuperSport United have had the benefit of it.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Hugo Cabral, 39, rolls back the years — 7.99
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.99 at 39, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“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 ratings4 Jan 2027
Ramahlwe Dolly was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.15. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.