Mduduzi Shabalala has been a revelation at Kaizer Chiefs this past season in what was his breakthrough year. Can he buck a trend of other young stars who have failed to make the grade at Naturena?
A little over four years ago, Mduduzi Shabalala was a hopeful and immensely talented teenager dreaming of playing for Orlando Pirates.
The secret is now out that he is a huge fan of attacking midfielder Thembinkosi Lorch, a player who stood out for him during the Soweto Derby between the Buccaneers and Kaizer Chiefs.
Now Shabalala is one of Amakhosi’s brightest young prospects following his breakthrough season under coach Arthur Zwane during Chiefs’ 2022/23 campaign.
“But since I’ve joined Kaizer Chiefs I had to change and support Chiefs, and I will die as a Kaizer Chiefs fan. At home, I have influenced my mother and siblings to switch to Chiefs, but my father has refused to change”, Shabalala said.
That is, very briefly, how his world has turned upside down since signing a three-year contract at Naturena a year ago on the back of spending some time being assessed by top-flight Belgian outfit KV Westerlo.
Chiefs rejected an offer from the European side to take Shabalala off their hands, with the argument thought to be that the bid submitted did not meet Chiefs’ valuation of their future star – hence the move to quickly tie him down to a new deal.
To gloat a little bit, veteran agent Mike Makaab tweeted a few months later that Shabalala had joined his Prosport International stable and immediately got an extension to his Amakhosi contract, adding two more years.
Perhaps the door will open again for an opportunity to move overseas considering the network Makaab has around the world.
But before all this hullabaloo, Shabalala was part of the Lenasia Football Academy under Sifiso Nxumalo, himself a young coach and a product of the Orlando Pirates development team.
“Everything happened so quickly”, Nxumalo explained in a rare interview that propelled him into the limelight on the back of Shabalala’s sudden promotion by Zwane to being a first- team player.
“He went from being here with me, then Chiefs, and getting a call-up to the national under-17 side. After that, he was playing for the DDC [DStv Diski Challenge, the top-flight reserve league] and then he was in the first team. That’s not always common – because soon after, he was playing in the derby.”
What has played a crucial role in the nimble-footed midfielder’s trajectory is Zwane’s own ascent to becoming the Chiefs head coach.
The former Amakhosi winger worked closely with the academy side before the club appointed him alongside Dillon Sheppard as assistant coaches to Gavin Hunt, who would only be at the club for seven months.
Zwane kept the same role when Stuart Baxter returned to the Glamour Boys in 2021, but Baxter, too, was sent packing before the conclusion of his first season, leaving the two assistants to see out the remaining seven matches.
“I’ve been coached by coach Arthur since I was 18 – when I joined Chiefs, he was the coach who promoted me [to the reserve league]. I know him well and know what he wants from me. So, it’s not that difficult for me and you can see in the way I’m playing I’ve been doing well and I’m enjoying myself”, said Shabalala.
He could have reflected on a season with even more delight had coach David Notoane’s under-23 side qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco, which serves as passage to the Paris Olympic Games next year for the top three teams in the tournament.
But this remains an introduction to the big leagues that Shabalala will savour.
Photo by Muzi Ntombela/BackpagePix
