Kaizer Chiefs coach Arthur Zwane has revealed that the club’s former emerging midfield star Wiseman Meyiwa was about to secure a big move to Europe just before his career was cut short by a car accident.
Meyiwa, ex-SA Under-20 captain who was tipped to be a future star, was forced to retire at the age of 19 after the car accident in 2018 that left him paraplegic.
Speaking about the state of the Chiefs academy’s success after one of its products, Njabulo Blom, recently secured a move to St Louis FC in the US’s Major League Soccer, Zwane said Meyiwa had offers from Germany and Italy.
“As a club, when we saw the opportunity for Njabulo Blom to go and grow elsewhere, we had to let him go,” Zwane said.
“That’s good for us and it’s going to motivate others. Maybe others will go to other countries in Europe.
“Even for Wiseman, it was unfortunate that he had that incident, but he was going to Italy or Germany. The team [Chiefs] was still negotiating with him.”
Zwane believes having clubs from other countries being interested in players from their development programme is a sign that Chiefs are doing something right.
The coach spoke about how players were equipped with life skills to try to ensure that if their football careers don’t work out, they could make a living outside the sport.
“So, you can see our development system is working and you can see the results of the work we started seven years ago,” Zwane said, referring to Chiefs’ launch of a revamped academy in 2014.
A number of exciting players have graduated from the development system to the senior side since then.
Some of those include Mduduzi Shabalala, Samkelo Zwane, Sabelo Radebe, Wandile Duba, Keletso Sifama, Nkosingiphile Ngcobo and Aden McCarthy.
Wiseman Meyiwa was on verge of moving to Europe, reveals Zwane
Coach believes Chiefs are on right track with their development programme
Image: Petri Oeschger/Gallo Images
Kaizer Chiefs coach Arthur Zwane has revealed that the club’s former emerging midfield star Wiseman Meyiwa was about to secure a big move to Europe just before his career was cut short by a car accident.
Meyiwa, ex-SA Under-20 captain who was tipped to be a future star, was forced to retire at the age of 19 after the car accident in 2018 that left him paraplegic.
Speaking about the state of the Chiefs academy’s success after one of its products, Njabulo Blom, recently secured a move to St Louis FC in the US’s Major League Soccer, Zwane said Meyiwa had offers from Germany and Italy.
“As a club, when we saw the opportunity for Njabulo Blom to go and grow elsewhere, we had to let him go,” Zwane said.
“That’s good for us and it’s going to motivate others. Maybe others will go to other countries in Europe.
“Even for Wiseman, it was unfortunate that he had that incident, but he was going to Italy or Germany. The team [Chiefs] was still negotiating with him.”
Zwane believes having clubs from other countries being interested in players from their development programme is a sign that Chiefs are doing something right.
The coach spoke about how players were equipped with life skills to try to ensure that if their football careers don’t work out, they could make a living outside the sport.
“So, you can see our development system is working and you can see the results of the work we started seven years ago,” Zwane said, referring to Chiefs’ launch of a revamped academy in 2014.
A number of exciting players have graduated from the development system to the senior side since then.
Some of those include Mduduzi Shabalala, Samkelo Zwane, Sabelo Radebe, Wandile Duba, Keletso Sifama, Nkosingiphile Ngcobo and Aden McCarthy.
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