Mohau Nkota: Ex-Orlando Pirates star mulling Saudi exit – ‘We may be moving him’

Bafana Bafana winger Mohau Nkota could soon quit the Saudi Pro League after a topsy-turvy debut season at Al-Ettifaq.

The former Orlando Pirates star moved to Saudi last summer and started brilliantly, scoring two goals and providing a couple of assists in his first seven games.

However, things took a turn for the worse when he returned from the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations as he found himself playing out of position and had to deal with spells in and out of the team.

He suffered a knee injury in May, which ended his hopes of playing for Bafana at the World Cup, as he needed between three and five months to recover.

“There are things that happen and on the eve of the World Cup, he is part of the preliminary squad, he gets this big injury and it could not just have come at the wrong time,” his agent Karabo Mathang-Tshabuse said on Metro FM.

Agent shares Mohau Nkota’s tribulations

“Again, he is played out of position in Saudi, all of us a sudden, the coach is trying to be creative, playing Mohau Nkota as a left-back. These are things you cannot foresee.

“The team was in trouble so much that they said we need you [at left-back]. These are the challenges and journeys that players travel through.

“In the circumstances, he did a phenomenal job there and like in the second last game of the season he gets injured. A knee injury that is so severe it takes him out of the World Cup and then he loses his father as well,” the P Management boss further stated of Nkota’s setbacks.

Mathang-Tshabuse confirmed that the winger, who made 22 appearances in all competitions for Al-Ettifaq last season, is back in Saudi to continue his recovery but will be exploring opportunities away from the club soon.

When ex-Pirates winger may leave Saudi

“It breaks my heart that life also happens when there are these football world stage events that players want to see themselves on but they are young and can carve opportunity again,” she added.

“He is back in Saudi, his operation and rehabilitation is coming on well and he should be starting in the next coming weeks.

“We may be moving him but I do think that for his recovery, it may be good to spend the first six months of the half of the season in Saudi,” she explained, hinting at a potential parting of ways in the January transfer window.

That will put South African clubs on alert although Pirates are believed to have an agreement with the Saudi club that grants them an opportunity to re-sign Nkota if he is available before the end of his four-year contract.