On Saturday, Kaizer Chiefs head coach Arthur Zwane praised Mduduzi Shabalala for grabbing his opportunity with both hands in the 1-0 victory over Orlando Pirates in the DStv Premiership. Zwane spoke highly of the 19-year old’s performance and emphasized the importance of giving youngsters a platform to shine.
“It was good to see a youngster like Mduduzi going in there and showcasing his talent and showing a little bit of arrogance on the ball and I just hope he grows in stature and become one of the best players for the future,” Zwane said in a press conference.
Full time score: (Ndah o.g 89’) Kaizer Chiefs 1 : 0 Orlando Pirates
DStv Man of the Match: Edmilson Dove Amakhosi4Life DStvPrem UnityInAction SowetoDerby pic.twitter.com/nLyODuuKLO
— Kaizer Chiefs (@KaizerChiefs) February 25, 2023
The head coach also compared the young midfielder to Nkosingiphile Ngcobo and expressed his belief that the team would benefit greatly from giving more opportunities to deserving youngsters.
“Mdu is a special talent, he is a bit like Nkosingiphile Ngcobo, though Mdu is a bit explosive and I’m a believer of giving youngsters an opportunity because I was once a youngster and I was given a fair chance to express myself,” he said.
“And we expect our national team to have very good players or a back-up team like under-23s at that level to have good players that can fit the senior national team and yet we’re not giving them opportunities here,” he continued.
Zwane also highlighted the importance of the club’s development graduates in creating a successful team. “And if you go back and look at the history of Kaizer Chiefs, whenever they dominated they had quite a few youngsters from the development that understand the culture and know what it means to play for a club of Kaizer Chiefs’ calibre,” he concluded.
