Marked for Keagan Vilakazi
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Jun 2028
Andile Jali 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 Jun 2028
Themba Tau 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.
Squad26 Jun 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Keagan Vilakazi and Platinum Stars agree another 3 years.
Squad26 Jun 2028
The manager makes an example of Andile Zungu
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market26 Jun 2028
3 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Platinum Stars money.
Market26 Jun 2028
“Ambitious players need ambitious projects. Draw your own conclusions.” Ignacio Rodríguez’s representative said it with a smile, and made sure everyone wrote it down.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 39. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market23 Aug 2027
The unthinkable, invoiced: Luther Billiat sold
Free State Stars arrived with $250.0K 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
A fracture rules Siyabonga Zwane out for 31 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Platinum Stars will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.36 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The terraces23 Aug 2027
Supporters turn on the $250.0K sale of Luther Billiat
He is going to Free State Stars, the club has $250.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Match21 Aug 2027
A 2‑1 win over Chippa United, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Khama Vilakazi 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.
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 Platinum Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Aug 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Keagan Vilakazi commits to Platinum Stars for another 3 years.