Erick Mokoena

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3 Jan 2027
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Marked for Erick Mokoena

22 Edition

The Free State Stars Chronicle

28 Dec 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad28 Dec 2026

Mandla Mabunda is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.58 with 22 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Player ratings28 Dec 2026

Ramahlwe Kekana runs at them all day

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.

Squad28 Dec 2026

Erick Ngcobo 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 Free State Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad28 Dec 2026

Shadrack Kobedi signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Shadrack Kobedi and Free State Stars agree another 2 years.

Match26 Dec 2026

Free State Stars find a way past Kaizer Chiefs

Kaizer Chiefs made Free State Stars work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.

The terraces28 Dec 2026

One of their own: Mandla Mabunda

He is 23 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.

Player ratings28 Dec 2026

Mandla Mabunda in the eights

A performance of 8.61 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

Squad28 Dec 2026

Dean Phiri 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.

Player ratings28 Dec 2026

A costly moment from Erick Mokoena

One lapse, one goal, and ninety minutes of honest work counting for nothing. That is the job at Free State Stars, and it is a cruel one.

In brief

Back issues
11 Edition

The Free State Stars Chronicle

12 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad12 Oct 2026

Dean Kekana is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.

Squad12 Oct 2026

A falling-out at Free State Stars

Ramahlwe Kekana and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

The dugout12 Oct 2026

The manager makes an example of Dean Kekana

“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.

Market12 Oct 2026

The Erick Ngcobo story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Erick Ngcobo signs something — a contract at Free State Stars or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

The dugout12 Oct 2026

Luther Dala knocks on the manager’s door

“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Luther Dala trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

The dugout12 Oct 2026

The manager makes Keagan Modiba a promise

Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Free State Stars. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.

In brief

8 Edition

The Free State Stars Chronicle

21 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings21 Sep 2026

Both of them Mandla Mabunda's — 8.96

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.96, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Market21 Sep 2026

Thulani Grobler puts it in writing

“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 Free State Stars, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad21 Sep 2026

Words exchanged at Free State Stars

Erick Ngcobo 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.

Match19 Sep 2026

Mandla Mabunda sends Free State Stars past Ajax Cape Town

It finished 2‑1, and it was Mandla Mabunda’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Free State Stars.

Match19 Sep 2026

Ajax Cape Town blown away early

There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Ajax Cape Town tried to reorganise, Free State Stars did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.

The dugout21 Sep 2026

The manager’s verdict

“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Keagan Tau kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.

The dugout21 Sep 2026

When it matters, Erick Ngcobo plays

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.

Squad21 Sep 2026

Player of the week: Mandla Mabunda

Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.

Squad21 Sep 2026

Young player of the week: Erick Mokoena

At 20 he was the best of everybody his age in the division for one weekend. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.

In brief

7 Edition

The Free State Stars Chronicle

14 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match9 Sep 2026

The cup run ends for Free State Stars

1‑2 against Ajax Cape Town, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.

Player ratings14 Sep 2026

Both of them Mandla Mabunda's — 9.11

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.11, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Player ratings14 Sep 2026

Dean Phiri, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.15

A mark of 8.15 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.

Player ratings14 Sep 2026

Ramahlwe Kekana was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 25. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Market14 Sep 2026

Morgan Zungu hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Free State Stars can pretend not to have heard.

Match12 Sep 2026

Free State Stars get the job done against Platinum Stars

A 4‑3 win over Platinum Stars, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.

Match12 Sep 2026

Nobody could stop scoring

7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Free State Stars and Platinum Stars in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.

Market14 Sep 2026

Erick Ngcobo wants more than Free State Stars are offering

“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.

Transfer targets14 Sep 2026

Free State Stars rebuffed over Evertton Araújo

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Flamengo have kept their man, and Free State Stars go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

In brief