Kaizer Chiefs News Today: How Pirates failed to land Doc Khumalo, Billiat NEVER wanted to leave Downs & more

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Kaizer Chiefs News Today: How Pirates failed to land Doc Khumalo, Billiat NEVER wanted to leave Downs & more

Latest news about Kaizer Chiefs in the last 24 hours, including Thabo Cele’s mental strength at Amakhosi and how Orlando Pirates failed in bid to sign Doctor Khumalo.

Cele explains ‘mental thing’ that has helped him

Kaizer Chiefs midfielder Thabo Cele says it hasn’t been an easy season for the side and himself personally saying come backs require mental resilience.

“Of course, like I said, me as an individual also it’s not been easy because you want to reach a certain level and a certain standard,” Cele opened up.

“But when things are not working out for you, you need to remain calm and just keep on working like what I’ve been doing. So, me coming back and trying to help the team in these last few games is something that I’ve been working towards, since I’ve been out for so many games.

“So, it’s a mental thing, to always be up for a comeback all the time you know. So that’s football. That’s how it goes. Sometimes you’re down, sometimes you’re up and then you’re down and try to bring yourself back.

Kaizer Chiefs midfielder Thabo Cele.
Kaizer Chiefs midfielder Thabo Cele. Image: Kaizer Chiefs

“So that’s what I’ve been trying to do and I’m still at it, you know what I mean,” he added.

How Pirates lost out on Doc Khumalo

Kaizer Chiefs Football Manager Bobby Motaung has narrated a story of how he prevented Orlando Pirates from signing Doctor Khumalo as a 16-year old budding talent.

“I want to rectify something, I hear that you wanted to go to Swallows, no, no, the other way round. So we used to host tournaments in Brits, where we had businesses in Brits, nightclubs, shops, at the nightclub, he (Khumalo) used to be a DJ, I used to look after the money,” Motaung stated.

“When they went to the tournament, I was a guard at the gate (as a cashier). Pirates sent their own people, because there was an aunt of ours who was at Pirates, she told them, ‘There are stars here’, Pirates ya nyonyoba (Pirates came undercover), this guy (Khumalo) was hot. It was packed.

“At night, we shared the same bed (me and Doctor) and hey, I saw these Pirates officials. I took a taxi at 5am in the morning, I came to Jo’burg, I went to the Chairman’s office (Dr. Kaizer Motaung), he was worried, ‘What do you want’?’. I said, ‘Bra K, there is something happening and we’re going to lose him, the vultures are there in Brits but let’s have a strategy of how we deal with this’. At that time there were no official contracts.

Kaizer Chiefs founder Kaizer Motaung and Football Manger Bobby Motaung
Kaizer Chiefs founder Kaizer Motaung and Football Manger Bobby Motaung

“So I said, ‘Go fetch his mother and father, sit them down and make them sign a contract’. When he (Khumalo) woke up, he got a call that ‘you must come home’, when he got home in Dube (Soweto), he found the Chairman (Dr. Kaizer Motaung), his mother and father sitting and they said ‘sign this paper’,” Motaung revealed.

Billiat reveals he never wanted to leave Sundowns

Former Mamelodi Sundowns midfielder Khama Billiat has opened up on how he wanted to stay at the club but felt the need to leave and joined Kaizer Chiefs.

“I didn’t want to leave, honestly. The club didn’t want me to leave either, but the negotiations over a contract extension just went long, going back and forth about money and other terms; it’s not healthy. It got to the point where the president (Dr. Patrice Motsepe) was involved, people were fighting, it was starting to get toxic,” Billiat said in an interview with Chioniso Mashakada’s YouTube Channel.

“There were people who wanted me to stay, wanted me to get the package that we were negotiating for, but there were these other people who didn’t want me to get the package but wanted me to stay. At the end, I decided to leave, because what I was asking for, with the offers I was getting, it was not healthy for me to stay after all.

Samir Nurkovic and Khama Billiat at Kaizer Chiefs
Samir Nurkovic and Khama Billiat at Kaizer Chiefs. Image: Kaizer Chiefs

“There were better offers afterwards, and after the fights, I told them I would not be doing justice to myself if I stay. The negotiations took a long time, like a year. It took so much time, there were so many things happening, it was coming to the pitch, I was not playing anymore, you can see the team is preparing for life without you, they are not involving you much in things that you would normally get involved in,” the Zimbabwe international concluded.

<!-- Author Start -->Willis Sob<!-- Author End -->

Willis Sob

Author

Willis Sob is an experienced journalist who has been in the game since 2009, covering major assignments around the continent.
His hunger for African football is unmatched, always getting the best angles and facts to feed the fans and quench their thirst.

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