Chiefs coach hails ‘arrogant’ Shabalala in derby win

Mduduzi Shabalala is a special player around whom Arthur Zwane says he wants to build a successful Kaizer Chiefs, after the teenager shone in his first Soweto derby on Saturday.

The 19-year-old footballer completed 90 minutes in Chiefs’ 1-0 Premiership victory over Orlando Pirates at FNB Stadium with Zwane gushing over his abilities. He added that more promising youngsters need to be given opportunities for SA football to grow.  

“It was good to see a youngster like Mduduzi going in there and showing a bit of arrogance on the ball. I just hope he will grow in stature and become one of our best players for the future,” was Zwane’s appraisal of Shabalala’s performance.

“Mdu is a special talent, he’s like Nkosingiphile Ngcobo, though Mdu is a bit explosive. I’m a believer in giving youngsters an opportunity because I was once a youngster and I was given a fair chance to express myself.

“I might have blossomed late in my career but when you look at what we’re not doing right currently as a nation it’s not giving deserving young players the opportunity to go out there and shine.

“And we expect our national team to have very good players for our backup team like the [SA] Under 23s — a team that should have good players to feed the senior national team.”

Zwane said clubs are stifling talent by not giving young players a platform to grow.

“We’re not giving them the opportunity. As soon as we settle in terms of what we want to achieve from our side you’ll see more youngsters [being promoted to the senior team at Chiefs] because they’re the future of this country.

“Whenever Chiefs have dominated, they had quite a few youngsters from the development. When Mdu plays 90 minutes in a game of this magnitude it’s encouraging.”

Shabalala had fine touches, helping his team create a few scoring opportunities before Pirates defender Olisah Ndah turned a long Edmilson Dove clearance into his own net in the 89th minute, handing Chiefs their fifth league win in succession over Bucs. 

Zwane said he was also happy to see his striking department improve after relying so much on Burundian striker Caleb Bimenyimana for goals in the first half of the season. Bimenyimana now has impressive Democratic Republic of the Congo striker Christian Saile, who was signed in January, to compete with.