Former Kaizer Chiefs coach Ernst Middendorp has revealed he wanted to sign Balint Bajner, who is understood to be on trial at the Amakhosi, back in 2019 for the Glamour Boys already.
The Hungarian striker flew into South Africa last week and it has been reported that the 31-year-old will be hoping to impress the Kaizer Chiefs hierarchy, as Arthur Zwane looks to improve his attacking options.
The former Borussia Dortmund player, who represented Hungary at youth level, last played for Pécsi MFC in his home country, but has experience across Europe, including a few seasons in England with clubs like West Ham, Ipswich Town and Notts County.
Middendorp, when pressed about Banner, explained that he and his technical team already assessed him in 2019 and gave the recommendation to sign him, while explaining some of his strong points.
“I only smile,” he told Robert Marawa on Marawa Sports Worldwide.
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“I had Balint at the age of 28 in March 2019, I had him in the training session for three weeks. We checked him out.
“Physically, Jarred Marsh was looking at him, really in details – what’s possible, what we can expect from him on the tactical side.
“I think it was around 12-13 pages, I delivered [the report] to the management of Kaizer Chiefs.
“At that time, it was very clear, we were five people to decide and from this five, assistant coach Shawn Bartlett, Lee Baxter and so on, four had a very clear opinion, that is what we referred to sign him for the next season.
“He’s a very powerful guy, but that’s three years ago. I don’t know where he is sitting at at the moment.”
With Chiefs looking to strengthen their attacking department, it will be interesting to see how things develop with Bajner.
