Kaizer Chiefs may have just received a major boost in their search for a striker after one of their main targets was released by his club.
Chiefs are in the market for a centre forward after those at the club hugely disappointed in the just-concluded season, leading to their ninth-place finish in the PSL.
The Glamour Boys have been rumoured to be targeting a host of strikers among them Congolese Fiston Mayele, who is currently playing for Egyptian side Pyramids, and Kenyan captain Michael Olunga.
Olunga’s departure confirmed by Al Duhail?
Those two are seen as the dream targets, if Chiefs can get one of them, and Amakhosi’s work might just have been made easy after Olunga was released by his Qatari club Al Duhail.
Al Duhail and Olunga announced a parting of ways on Thursday, the striker bringing to an end a four-and-a-half-year chapter that saw him score goals for fun, break records and win four trophies, including one league title.
Olunga leaves Al Duhail as the club’s all-time top scorer, having scored 130 goals across all competitions, while he won the Golden Boot in both 2021-22 and 2023-23 seasons.
Can Chiefs lure the Kenyan striker?
His most prolific season was in 2022-23 when he scored 36 goals in 39 matches as he fired Al Duhail to a league and cup double and he had scored 20 or more goals in his first three years before his tally reduced in the just-concluded campaign when he managed 15 and provided four assists in 24 games across all competitions.
The Kenyan international is one of the key men for Bafana Bafana legend Benni McCarthy’s team and has been on the radar of Chiefs since last year.
A deal for Olunga, who is reported to have been earning $1.9 million per year at Al Duhail, however, proved difficult for Amakhosi but now as a free agent, it could be the perfect opportunity to pounce.
What is not known, however, is whether Olunga, whose stock is still high in Qatar and in the Gulf, would be willing to leave the cash-rich region for South Africa.
