Baccus’ Future At Chiefs Uncertain

Kaizer Chiefs midfielder Kearyn Baccus is facing an uncertain future with his contract set to expire with the club at the end of the current season.

The 30-year-old midfielder was completely out of the reckoning after falling behind the pecking order under head coach Stuart Baxter since his arrival.

However, over the last few weeks, he’s shown some impressive form when afforded start roles which brought about speculation of whether he’s done enough to turn his career around at Amakhosi.

His representative Mike Makaab admits there’s been interest in the Durban-born midfielder but the ball is in the court of the Soweto giants – should they have a role for him beyond July.

“I can’t answer [if Chiefs want to retain him],” Makaab told iDiski Times. ‘Kearyn and I had a chat, there is definite interest in Kearyn from other teams in South Africa, he’s a free agent at the end of the season.

“But we both agreed that we’d wait and see what transpires, there might be opportunities outside of South Africa, back in Asia – so we are taking that one step at a time.”

After starting four of the last five games for Chiefs, Baccus was an unused substitute in the 1-0 defeat against SuperSport United last Saturday and Baxter admits he didn’t play as he isn’t capable of fulfilling the role he was looking for as he opted for captain Bernard Parker and Cole Alexander as a midfield duo in front of Phathutshedzo Nange.

“We went to a 4-3-3 and my two eights, I wanted them to close down [players] quickly, so Cole and Bernard were there to close their midfield players down quickly,” Baxter said after the game.

“We didn’t close them down as quickly as I wanted to so that part of the game wasn’t satisfactory but that isn’t Kearyn’s strength, to be in front of the back four on his own.

“His strength is playing with partners in a two where they can both be close to each other and they can build attacks – that’s why he was on the bench today and we went with Bernard and Cole.”

The former A-League star has featured 52 times for Chiefs since his arrival in July 2019, scoring twice and registering four assists in his deep-lying playmaker role.