Marked for Teboho Grobler
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 42. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match4 Oct 2027
Position 1 and 19 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market4 Oct 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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 22 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Siyabonga Mabena, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.14
A mark of 8.14 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Match2 Oct 2027
10 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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
At 20, Siyabonga Mabena is already the best thing here
An average of 7.03 in a first team he is several years too young for. Bloemfontein Celtic have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad4 Oct 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mandla Khune and Bloemfontein Celtic agree another 2 years.
Squad4 Oct 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bloemfontein Celtic this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 47. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 31 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Siyabonga Mabena, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.23
A mark of 8.23 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Match25 Sep 2027
13 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Match25 Sep 2027
9 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Angelo Van Rooi 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Bloemfontein Celtic training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Grant Kekana 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.
Match25 Sep 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Siphesihle Ndlovu. 3‑1 against Black Aces, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces27 Sep 2027
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 35. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad20 Sep 2027
A fracture rules Teboho Grobler out for 41 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bloemfontein Celtic will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Khotso Malope: 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.” Bloemfontein Celtic have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Siyabonga Mabena is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Match18 Sep 2027
8 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 35. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match8 Sep 2027
Golden Arrows go through and Bloemfontein Celtic go home, 1‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Squad13 Sep 2027
A fracture rules Teboho Grobler out for 50 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bloemfontein Celtic will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Fredrick Asare decides it from twelve yards
1 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Match11 Sep 2027
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Match11 Sep 2027
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Bloemfontein Celtic did not have in the autumn.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at Bloemfontein Celtic training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Grant Kekana 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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Siphesihle Ndlovu 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
Squad6 Sep 2027
A fracture rules Teboho Grobler out for 59 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bloemfontein Celtic will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market6 Sep 2027
The offer from Asante Kotoko for Siyabonga Mabena was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Player ratings6 Sep 2027
Teboho Lorch, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.84
A mark of 7.84 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings6 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Selwyn Stevens is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Market6 Sep 2027
The deal that would have taken Luther Mkhize to Chippa United has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Bloemfontein Celtic with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Fredrick Asare 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Grant Kekana 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.
The terraces6 Sep 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Teboho Lorch has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Aug 2027
A fracture rules Teboho Grobler out for 66 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bloemfontein Celtic will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market30 Aug 2027
Black Aces come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Bloemfontein Celtic did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market30 Aug 2027
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Match28 Aug 2027
10 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at Bloemfontein Celtic training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Grant Kekana 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Grant Kekana gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad30 Aug 2027
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 47. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 74 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Angelo Van Rooi: 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.” Bloemfontein Celtic have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market23 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.
Market23 Aug 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Bloemfontein Celtic is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad23 Aug 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bloemfontein Celtic this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market16 Aug 2027
The unthinkable, invoiced: Siyanda Ndlovu sold
Bodo/Glimt arrived with $9.6M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 81 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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
No sign of nerves from Siyabonga Mabena at 20 — 8.20
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Siyabonga Mabena did not need any: 8.20, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The terraces16 Aug 2027
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Siyanda Ndlovu was one of the reasons people came, and $9.6M does not replace that by itself.
Squad16 Aug 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Grant Kekana and Bloemfontein Celtic agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Angelo Van Rooi 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.
Match14 Aug 2027
A 3‑2 win over Bidvest Wits, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The terraces16 Aug 2027
Bloemfontein Celtic spend $200.0K on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $200.0K for Selwyn Stevens, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings9 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 35. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match7 Aug 2027
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Golden Arrows, and it could have been more.
Squad9 Aug 2027
A fracture rules Teboho Grobler out for 89 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bloemfontein Celtic will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad9 Aug 2027
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Market9 Aug 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings9 Aug 2027
No sign of nerves from Siyabonga Mabena at 20 — 8.15
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Siyabonga Mabena did not need any: 8.15, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Boardroom9 Aug 2027
Bloemfontein Celtic moved before anybody else could: a new deal for Siyabonga Billiat, agreed quietly and announced loudly. Boards extend managers for many reasons; the good one is the one this looks like.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Fredrick Asare 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.
Market9 Aug 2027
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Bloemfontein Celtic will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market2 Aug 2027
$570.0K. No player has ever cost Bloemfontein Celtic more, and expectation arrives with him.
Squad2 Aug 2027
A fracture rules Teboho Grobler out for 96 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bloemfontein Celtic will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market2 Aug 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Bloemfontein Celtic have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Market2 Aug 2027
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Williams Furman wants continental football; whether Bloemfontein Celtic can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad2 Aug 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bloemfontein Celtic this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Sifiso Mothiba is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Jul 2027
A fracture rules Teboho Grobler out for 103 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bloemfontein Celtic will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Siyanda Ndlovu 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Grant Kekana 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Jul 2027
Teboho Grobler breaks a bone — 111 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 111 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market19 Jul 2027
The offer from Olimpia for Williams Furman was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Bloemfontein Celtic training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Grant Kekana 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Williams Khune 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.
Market19 Jul 2027
Hlompho Dala is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Bloemfontein Celtic has been clear about where Hlompho Dala stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Jul 2027
Thulani Mahlangu damages knee ligaments — 20 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 20 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad12 Jul 2027
A fracture rules Teboho Grobler out for 119 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bloemfontein Celtic will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market12 Jul 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Jul 2027
Thulani Mahlangu damages knee ligaments — 27 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 27 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad5 Jul 2027
A fracture rules Teboho Grobler out for 128 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bloemfontein Celtic will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market5 Jul 2027
The bid was some way short and Bloemfontein Celtic did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Teboho Lorch is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Siyabonga Mabena 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.
Boardroom5 Jul 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Jun 2027
Thulani Mahlangu damages knee ligaments — 36 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 36 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad28 Jun 2027
A fracture rules Teboho Grobler out for 135 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bloemfontein Celtic will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Siyabonga Mabena is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Market28 Jun 2027
The name of Siyabonga Mabena has come up in conversations Bloemfontein Celtic were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad28 Jun 2027
At 28 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.
Market28 Jun 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Bloemfontein Celtic know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 40. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match14 Nov 2026
1‑4 against Free State Stars, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Bloemfontein Celtic may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad16 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bloemfontein Celtic this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Percy Kekana 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.
Boardroom16 Nov 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Siyabonga Mabena, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.80
A mark of 7.80 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad21 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bloemfontein Celtic this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Siyanda Ndlovu at his very best
Marked 8.37. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Bloemfontein Celtic.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ramahlwe Zwane, and the manager let it.