Former Kaizer Chiefs dribbling wizard Junior Khanye has surprisingly backed Royal AM chairman Andile Mpisane’s right to have a decent playing career amid the backlash he’s received for being part of the playing personnel.
The flamboyant Mpisane, 21, nearly made his DStv Premiership when his Royal lost 1-0 to Richards Bay at Chatsworth Stadium on Tuesday. He remained an unused substitute as the team he purportedly owns surrendered their leadership atop the Premiership table to their neighbours.
Mpisane is Royal’s chairman while his mother Shauwn “MaMkhize” Mkhize is the owner of the club. Mpisane made his professional debut in 2018, coming off the bench in Royal’s 4-0 win over Witbank Spurs in the second tier.
Many feel Mpisane, who’s also a Gqom artist, is abusing power and making a mockery of the Premier Soccer League by juggling his managerial role with playing at Thwihli Thwahla. Last season, the Thwihli Thwahla chairman featured in a few Diski Challenge outings.
But surprisingly, Khanye believes Royal co-coach Dan Malesela saw something in Mpisane to include him in the squad.
The ex-Kaizer Chiefs man, who usually lambastes players he considers “mediocre”, claimed he watched Mpisane’s talent first-hand when he played at celebrity games at Bidvest Stadium in July this year.
“My brother, I was with Andile when we played those celebrity games. I was amazed by his touches. Umjita [the guy] loves football. If he wants to play there’s nothing wrong about that because ingwenya imnandi [he’s good]. For the fact that he makes the 18-man squad for match-day, it means he’s working hard at training,” Khanye told Sowetan yesterday.
“Dance [Malesela] knows football. He won’t take the boy [Mpisane] to the match-day squad if he wasn’t a good player. Andile knows football and people must not judge him based on the fact that he’s the chairman. If he wants to play he must... there’s no mockery there.”
After the Bay defeat, Royal co-coach Khabo Zondo disclosed Mpisane was working tirelessly to be fully fit. “It’s work in progress. We must get him a chance to get to a level where we are. He’s part of the team and he’s been taking his training very, very seriously,” said Zondo.
In what was an indication of how polarising MaMkhize is in domestic football, Sowetan’s attempts to solicit comment from other football pundits drew a blank as they flatly refused to state their opinion on a part-timer effectively registered for professional ranks.
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