From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 Aug 2026
$2.9M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
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 Kaizer Chiefs can pretend not to have heard.
Market31 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Tusker waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Kaizer Chiefs is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
He is going to Ajax Cape Town, the club has $2.9M 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Free State Stars have kept their man, and Kaizer Chiefs go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad31 Aug 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 Kaizer Chiefs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Kaizer Chiefs offered $160.0K; Mamelodi Sundowns said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Match29 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market24 Aug 2026
The unthinkable, invoiced: Aden McCarthy sold
Bloemfontein Celtic arrived with $1.6M 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.
Market24 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Kaizer Chiefs did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
Aden McCarthy has gone, the accounts have $1.6M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Market24 Aug 2026
The name of Brandon Petersen has come up in conversations Kaizer Chiefs were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $166.9K — a club that wants Bennet Mokoena enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
No thanks: Mateo Herrera rejects the move
Kaizer Chiefs had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Cortulua, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
$160.0K on the table at Mamelodi Sundowns. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Lebohang Maboe 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
Triumph
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.98 for the rest of it.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$1.4M on the table at Mamelodi Sundowns. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer from Gor Mahia for Connor Jales 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Sibongiseni Mthethwa 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
SuperSport United wanted more than $87.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Market17 Aug 2026
Ajax Cape Town pay $290.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Kaizer Chiefs training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lebohang Maboe 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 ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match8 Aug 2026
Chippa United will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Kaizer Chiefs were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
A brace, and Etiosa Ighodaro takes the afternoon — 8.47
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Etiosa Ighodaro provided it, and the 8.47 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Gastón Sirino, 35, rolls back the years — 8.10
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.10 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad10 Aug 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 Kaizer Chiefs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
2 academy players handed senior numbers at Kaizer Chiefs
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mfundo Vilakazi commits to Kaizer Chiefs for another 5 years.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Dean Grobler has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Teboho Modiba is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
Bruce Bvuma: 10 seasons and counting
71 appearances across 10 seasons in one shirt. Careers like that are not built on purpose any more, and Kaizer Chiefs know exactly what they have.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Brandon Petersen and Kaizer Chiefs agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Zitha Kwinika 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Kaizer Chiefs training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lebohang Maboe 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Market3 Aug 2026
Still no offer on the table, and Lebohang Maboe’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Market3 Aug 2026
Thabo Mokwena is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Kaizer Chiefs has been clear about where Thabo Mokwena stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mfundo Vilakazi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.