Windhoek
Namibian defender Willem ‘Dudes’ Mwedihanga could soon be joining South African Premiership campaigners Free State Stars, following widespread reports linking him with a move to the Bethlehem club.
According to one of South Africa’s well-respected football broadsheets SoccerLaduma, Mwedihanga is one of the players earmarked by Stars and the club’s technical staff feels that the Brave Warriors stalwart is the ideal man to tie up the loose ends in the team’s somewhat shaky backline.
The 30-year-old former Tigers defender was until the end of last season on the books of the University of Pretoria (AmaTuks) and finished the season on an individual high with an incredible record of being the only AmaTuks player who started in all 30 league matches last season.
Unfortunately, all his hard work proved not to be enough to save AmaTuks from the jaws of relegation after the club was last season demoted back to that country’s National First Division (NFD) and thus the scenario left Mwedihanga and fellow countryman and Namibian captain Stigga Ketjijere with no option but to seek greener pastures elsewhere in the PSL.
With Mwedihanga now rumoured to be on his way to Stars, it is still not clear whether Ketjijere will remain with AmaTuks in the NFD, or will jump ship and join premier league club.
According to SoccerLaduma, sources close to Stars have confirmed that Mwedihanga will be on his way to Free State Stars, if all goes according to plan. “He could be at the club before the end of the week to start training with the rest of the team,” said the source.
Free State Stars sale to Moroka Swallows cancelled
Other news also from across the Orange River is that the much-anticipated deal between Mwedihanga and Ketjijere’s Free State Stars and Rudolf Bester’s Moroka Swallows has been called off, PSL chairman Irvin Khoza confirmed yesterday.
The deal was to see Swallows buy out the Premier League status of Free State Stars in their ongoing bid to return to that country’s topflight league following back-to-back relegations – first from the PSL during the 2014/15 season and then from the National First Division (NFD) last season.
Now that the deal with Stars has failed, it basically means Bester and his club will have to win the Gauteng stream of the second division, before going into the play-offs, where they will meet eight other provincial winners, which will then see only two teams gaining promotion to the NFD.
After hopefully securing promotion to the NFD, Swallows will either need to win the NFD league and head straight to the PSL or at least finish second or third to go into the promotional play-offs, which would then decide their fate in SA topflight football.