Kaizer Chiefs want to bring back glory days

Kaizer Chiefs Sporting Director Kaizer Motaung Junior has described the upcoming season as a time to rebuild and lay a solid foundation for the Soweto glamour team. Amakhosi have not lived up to expectations in recent years, playing second fiddle to traditional rivals Orlando Pirates and Mamelodi Sundowns.

The club has now gone nine years without winning any trophy in South African top-flight football. But expectations are high, following the appointment of new head coach, Nasreddine Nabi, for the upcoming season.

Tunisian Nabi brings lot of hope to the club. He has already spent three weeks with the squad during their pre-season tour in Türkiye. Amakhosi supporters will see the club in action for the first time under the new technical team on Sunday.

Chiefs will face Tanzanian giants Young Africans in the inaugural Toyota Cup at the Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein.

Motaung Junior says they are excited about the new direction that the club will be taking.

“I think we are very much optimistic at the same time very much realistic. I think what’s important is we can feel the positive energy from the supporters, positive energy from the players, from our technical staff but I think what’s very important is that we remain grounded. You know I think what’s important for everyone to understand is that we literally reconstructing who we are as a football club. That means with our players, with our squad make-up, with how we want to play football, with how we want to operate as a business.”

But Motaung has appealed for patience from their supporters ahead of the new season.

“While we are optimistic, we really call for calm, we call for calm, patience you know success does not happen overnight and I think we are privileged to have a world-class technical staff and of course it will take time to be able to build the squad that will take us where we need to go. So, I just ask for lot of patience and calm from our supporters. While we are positive and excited, we want to channel that to the right direction,”

Motaung says they are still going to reinforce their team for the upcoming season, and Nabi will be involved in the recruitment process.

“Without a doubt I mean it’s important that it is aligned with our coach and the footballing club, the kind of football we want to play I mean the coach understands the blueprint of how he wants to play and he’s going to have specific requirements and player’s needs to be able to achieve that. The players that come in need to be signed off by the coach. So, it’s very important that we are aligned going in the same direction with the same vision.”

Chiefs have been struggling to attract decent crowds to their home matches in Gauteng in recent years. But with positive results, things could change.

“I think fans must understand that this is the start of the new journey and where we are going and let us not use old terms, as much as they have excitement, this is about consolidating. What we are doing and really looking forward, so I am quite excited with all the plans we have in place,” says Jessica Motaung, Kaizer Chiefs Marketing Director.

The hard-to-please Amakhosi fans are hoping for a change in fortunes.

“I can see as Chiefs supporters we going to have our glory days back,” a supporter says.

“We can’t wait for the beginning of the season and the signing has inspired confidence in the faithful, so we are looking forward for the season to start,” another supporter explains.

“We want to make sure that this is the Kaizer Chiefs that is known to compete with Orlando Pirates, Kaizer Chiefs that is known to beat Sundowns. Their downfall is our rise,” another supporter elaborates.

“You will see magic this season Kaizer Chiefs is taking everything, it’s taking the league,” another supporter explains.

Having failed to qualify for the Top 8 last season, Chiefs’ first official fixture of the 2024/2025 season will only be in September.

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