Zwane Tipped For Huge Chiefs Future

Kaizer Chiefs midfielder Samkelo Zwane lacks the defensive aspects of a traditional six but has a huge future for Amakhosi, according to head coach Arthur Zwane.

The 21-year-old Chiefs youth product, who is the son of former Orlando Pirates star Eugene Zwane has emerged in a turbulent season where Chiefs have struggled to find a regular midfield pairing for various reasons.

Over the past decade and more Amakhosi boasted the likes of Willard Katsande and Tinashe Nengomasha in that defensive midfield role and while fellow academy product Njabulo Blom showed promise, his contractual saga led him to an exit to the MLS with St Louis City in the January transfer window.

In stepped in Samkelo on New Year’s Eve against Golden Arrows, and the South Africa youth international has shown glimpses of what could be in the future, as he produced a Man of the Match display against Stellenbosch two weeks ago.

“When I look at Samkelo, he is something else, for me – not because we developed him, as a club, but because he has a rare quality in him,” Zwane said at the PSL headquarters on Thursday.

“His technical ability and execution are second to none, and that will always make him a special player, we are lacking such players in South Africa that can be able to pin-point 40-meter passes and also be creative, take risks at the back to unlock oppositions.

“Most defensive midfielders [in South Africa] keep it simple, they don’t want to lose the ball in critical areas of the field where they can end up being punished. 

“You will recall we ended up playing one of our former players, Njabulo Blom, who gave us stability and fighting in the middle to protect the back-four or the central area of the field – he did very well, unfortunately, he had to go for greener pastures.”

But Zwane’s rise to the first-team wasn’t intentional, or rather his regular minutes was not planned as ‘Mangethe’ admitted they were looking towards Cole Alexander (33) and Phathutshedzo Nange (31) to fill the gap vacated by Blom alongside Yusuf Maart or Siyethemba Sithebe.

“We had to look at a model footballer than can make us tick, help the defence, and when it comes to that he’s still lacking in that aspect because it’s not him, but whenever he has the ball, the more we’re on the ball, meaning we defend less, he uses the ball wisely.

“He knows when to pass the ball and in which areas to pass it in order to hurt oppositions, and we also have someone like Cole who’s been injured, it’s only now he started training, we had Nange as well, injury-prone and personal life challenges, losing a family member.

“Those were key players, senior players [unavailable] for us due to unforeseen circumstances, and when I said this is the most difficult season, this is what I meant, we couldn’t keep a consistent starting lineup because of that.

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“Most of our senior players weren’t available because of injuries and whenever you thought they were ready to come in and add value then one or two will be out for another two, three months, getting injured in practice matches, something we can’t control.

“Then it gave Samkelo the opportunity to shine, we’re grooming him, helping him to settle in because you don’t want to put [players] under pressure too early, but he’s in the thick of things now, he has to lead with the support of other senior players on the field and even those off the field support him [which is a positive] for us as a club.”

Zwane has featured nine times for Amakhosi this season and looks set to start this weekend in their Nedbank Cup quarter-final against Royal AM at Chatsworth Stadium.