Gift Zungu

Central Midfielder - Black Aces
22 Oct 2026
Thursday
Process

Marked for Gift Zungu

11 Edition

The Black Aces Herald

12 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

The wait goes on for Black Aces

7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.

Market

Teboho Modiba asks to leave Black Aces

“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.

Squad

Tempers go at Black Aces

Carlo De Luca 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.

Match

Carlo De Luca’s goal not enough for Black Aces

Carlo De Luca scored, and precious little else went right: 2‑3 to Orlando Pirates, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.

Squad

Words at Black Aces training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thamsanqa 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.

Squad

The manager makes an example of Ramahlwe Mphela

“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.

Squad

Kermit Ngcobo has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Black Aces will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.

Market

The Carlo De Luca story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Carlo De Luca signs something — a contract at Black Aces or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

Player ratings

Gift Zungu changes it off the bench

He was not in the side at half past three and he had settled it before five. Half an hour, and Black Aces had a different afternoon.

In brief

Back issues
3 Edition

The Black Aces Herald

17 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Black Aces say no — this time

The offer from Chippa United for Ramahlwe Mphela 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.

Market

The Heracles deal is off

Everything was agreed until it was not, and Thamsanqa Mothiba reports back to Black Aces with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.

Squad

Mandla Phiri in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Black Aces this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Thamsanqa Mothiba 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.

Squad

Mandla Phiri 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.

Player ratings

Carlo De Luca in the eights

A performance of 8.04 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Morgan Dala

Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Match

Honours even between Black Aces and SuperSport United

1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.

Squad

Carlo De Luca finally opens his account

He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Black Aces have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.

In brief