The ManicaPost
Ray Bande
Senior Reporter
KAISER Chiefs ageing midfield genius, Willard Katsande is unfazed with reports that the club could soon be offloading him as the 35-year old is looking forward to at least one more season at the South Africa Premiership side.
Born January 15, 1986, the former Warriors’ captain’s limps could be answering the call of nature as he is now having lesser game time with each passing month.
On average most football players hang their boots when their age gets on the wrong side of 30.
Reports have emerged that he could be offloaded at the end of the season.
Media reports from South Africa say Kaiser Chiefs will at the end of the season offload veterans Katsande and Parker Bernard as coach, Gavin Hunt contents that the duo are no longer adding value to the club.
Katsande has fallen down the perking order and has been used sparingly this season, while Parker has been blunt upfront having last been on target last season.
“These guys (Katsande and Parker) have given some unbelievable service to football. They have won a lot of trophies, they have been here for some time,” Hunt told the media recently .
“These people are on my case.’ Like in all sports, like in boxing when you get older, somebody is going to be better than you.
Also to be released is Siphosakhe Ntiya-Ntiya, while attacking midfielder Siphelele Ntshangase was recently offloaded.
That Chiefs are expected to go big in the market as Fifa are set to lift their transfer ban in July, makes the survival of Katsande and fellow ageing players much more tricky.
“I think I can still go on. I want one or two more seasons then I am done. My wish is to retire here at Kaiser Chiefs. The reports in the media have not yet been communicated to me in the official lines that we have always been using.
“I still enjoy a good relationship with everyone including our coaches. In fact, I still have on my contract one optional season. At the end of the day it is God who can determine the future, but if it were my wish, I would have loved to stay for at least one more season at Amakhosi,” said Katsande.
Only recently, Katsande smashed the Zimbabwean players’ record of matches played for Kaiser Chiefs.
At 308 matches played so far in a period spanning almost a decade for Kaiser Chiefs, Katsande became the Zimbabwean player with the highest number of games played for one of Africa’s greatest football clubs.
No wonder the club recently conferred the former Warriors’ captain with the status of a legend.
After making 311 appearances for Amakhosi, Tinashe ‘General’ Nengomasha was all along holding the record of Zimbabwean player with most number of matches played at Kaiser Chiefs.
The ex-Warriors midfielder, who traces the humble beginnings of his career to local clubs such as the now defunct Highway FC, is in his 10th year as a member of the Amakhosi team and in August this year, he will be celebrating completing a decade in the coveted Kaiser Chiefs gold and black stripes.
He joined the Naturena side on August 1, 2011 from Ajax Cape Town and has played more than 308 games in which he helped them win two league titles and the MTN8 title.
Katsande has served under seven coaches in his Chiefs career.
