Kaizer Chiefs chairman Kaizer Motaung Snr. has paid tribute to the late Frank ‘Jingles’ Pereira who sadly passed away at the age of 77 on Sunday.
Pereira, who was born in Madeira but moved to South Africa at an early age, is one of the legends of the sixties, seventies and eighties and began his professional career with Vaal United in 1963.
He later joined Powerlines, Highlands Park, Jewish Guild and the old Cape Town City, before moving to Chiefs in 1979.
After his sad passing, Kaizer Motaung Snr. shared some sentiment and heartfelt memories of the club legend.
“I must tell you that this is one of the saddest moments in our history of football because Jingles made a very, very great impact in terms of a player,” he told the club’s media team.
“When we recruited him from Cape Town City, he was still then playing as a striker. And of course, when he came to Kaizer Chiefs was converted to be to play as a central defender, in fact, as a sweeper, at the time.
“Jingles had such a personality. I mean, all his teammates and those that played with and against him, always had so much respect for him because he had something special about him in his face, he always had a smile every time.
“I don’t remember seeing Jingles in a very so sad mood when he was here, because every time you see him, he had such a sparkle in his eyes. He was that kind of player who always was wanted to make other players happy and laugh and, and so forth and so on.
“So he was a great asset for the team. And obviously when he came here, they renamed him ‘Mama KaSibongile’. So that’s how he was known here at Kaizer Chiefs.
“He was one of those players, obviously, like I said, you’d never forget.”
Kaizer Motaung Snr. then also send his condolences to the family of the fallen giant.
“First and foremost I must try to thank the family for having actually given him that opportunity for him to be part of our journey and also to be part of a football journey in general for the country, because he made such a significant contribution towards development of football in this country. So he can never never be forgotten,” he added.
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“So I’ll just say to the family that we are we are saddened by the loss. The loss is not only for them, but it’s for all of us. In fact, the soccer fraternity in general.
“So I just want to say they must understand that these are the realities, the law of life that when you’re time comes and you’re to depart this earth, we have to accept it because this is something that we have no control over it, it’s an act of God.
“And I just say my sincere condolences to the family, in that we will always be remembering him and we wish him everything for him to rest in peace.”
