Marked for Mandla Mothiba
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Sep 2026
Bidvest Wits will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑2, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Platinum Stars were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.98 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A brace, and Itumeleng Williams takes the afternoon — 9.18
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Itumeleng Williams provided it, and the 9.18 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Bradley Ngcobo, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.76
A mark of 7.76 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market21 Sep 2026
Only the photograph left for Mandla Mothiba
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mandla Mothiba will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Platinum Stars the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Siyabonga Phiri and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match19 Sep 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Platinum Stars and Bidvest Wits, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Ntsikelelo Nyauza 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 terraces21 Sep 2026
At 18 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match9 Sep 2026
Orlando Pirates ended it 1‑4. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
1-4. Going out of a cup is one afternoon; going out like that is a week of phone-ins, and the manager will hear every one of them.
Market14 Sep 2026
The bid was some way short and Platinum Stars did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market14 Sep 2026
“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 Platinum Stars, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match12 Sep 2026
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Platinum Stars are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Mandla Tau has a hand in both — 7.37
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.37, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
Squad14 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 Platinum Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match12 Sep 2026
Golden Arrows left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 Aug 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Platinum Stars have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market31 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Platinum Stars can pretend not to have heard.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Ntsikelelo Nyauza and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Platinum Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erick Grobler 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A defender's afternoon for Andile Furman
Defensive actions: 16. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match22 Aug 2026
Chippa United will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Platinum Stars were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” JS Saoura had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market24 Aug 2026
Binga come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Platinum Stars did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Siyabonga Phiri at 21 — 7.97
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Siyabonga Phiri did not need any: 7.97, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Platinum Stars can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.20 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Real Sociedad, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Siyabonga Phiri and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Platinum Stars did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market3 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Siyabonga Phiri 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Themba Mahlangu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mandla Modiba and Platinum Stars agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Real Madrid: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Kaizer Chiefs: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Market3 Aug 2026
Mandla Mothiba is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Platinum Stars has been clear about where Mandla Mothiba stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Platinum Stars, and both men came out saying it was fine.