Jele Ready For Chiefs After Royal AM Debut

Veteran defender Happy Jele has reacted to making his long-awaited Royal AM debut, one week ahead of facing his old rivals Kaizer Chiefs.

Jele featured for 90 minutes in the 3-1 win over Stellenbosch FC this past weekend and it was his first game in close to a year.

As he featured for the first time for Royal AM, things started shaky, with Stellies’ Junior Mendieta firing the visitors ahead.

But the home team came back strong, with Tebogo Potsane playing a starring role to see John Maduka’s side win 3-1.

Potsane set up veteran winger Elias Pelembe for the equaliser, before Mthokozisi Dube – Jele’s former teammate at Pirates – took the lead before half time to make it 2-1, from another Potsane’s pass.

Then Shaun Mogaila added the third late in the game, to provide a perfect entrance for Jele at his new club.

“For me, it felt great to play. I have been away from football for such a long time,” said Jele at the club’s media day, as they are preparing for the Nedbank Cup quarter-final against Chiefs.

“For me to come back and play – first I want to thank the president [Shauwn Mkhize] and the technical team for believing in me, just to come back and play again. For me, it is the greatest thing and I’m here to help the team to go forward.”

Interestingly, the 36-year-old made his PSL debut for Pirates at the very same venue – Chatsworth Stadium – when he was 19 years, eight months, and 19 days old against Maritzburg United on 20 September 2006 when Milutin Sredojevic was the coach.   

Jele left Pirates after 16 years of service ahead of the 2022/23 campaign, declining Bucs’ offer of a non-playing role, saying he was not ready to retire and felt he still had more to offer.

The Mpumalanga-born player will face his old Soweto rivals Chiefs in the Nedbank Cup quarter-final this weekend, having played in 29 Soweto Derbies, during which he scored once.

Jele also won Nedbank Cup twice with Pirates and said his engine has been revved up ahead of Sunday’s clash in the Ke Yona Cup.

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“I have been training so well in the past two months with the team,” he added.

“The coach gave me the chance to play and even the friendly matches I was doing well. I believed that I did my part on the field against Stellies the previous weekend.

“Against Chiefs, it is going to be a big game because it’s a cup game and one must die.”