Tlolane says Chiefs move fell through before Golden Arrows deal

Former Orlando Pirates winger Tebogo Tlolane says he was close to joining Kaizer Chiefs before Golden Arrows persuaded his agent to take him to Lamontville ahead of the 2023/24 season.

Tlolane, who is now a free agent after leaving Pirates at the end of the 2022/23 campaign, has described how a proposed move to Naturena failed to materialise despite interest from Chiefs.

The left winger joined Pirates from Chippa United in July 2019. Six months later, he began a series of loan spells at Durban City, previously known as Maritzburg United, across three seasons.

After ultimately being released by Pirates, Tlolane was called up by Bafana Bafana for the COSAFA Cup. He said his agent contacted him after he returned from international duty to tell him that his phone was receiving calls from interested clubs.

“So the contract is coming to an end with Pirates, they want me to stay but I’m like ‘I think I need to go, I think now is time’. So my agent is like ‘Okay, you’re not going with them to Spain, this is the first time they went to Spain’. I got called up to the Bafana COSAFA team, came back and the agent said ‘Your phone is ringing boy’,” Tlolane related the story on iDiski Dine YouTube Channel.

He said one of the approaches came from Molefi Ntseki’s agent. Ntseki was coaching Chiefs at the time and the club was interested in securing Tlolane’s services.

“I got a call from Molefi Ntseki’s agent, because he was at Chiefs at that time. So they said, ‘We want to sign you’, it’s Chiefs, I was thinking I’m going to AmaZulu, because I was at AmaZulu actually in Durban. The deal couldn’t happen, so I came home.

“I got off a phone call with Arthur Zwane, (he said), ‘Do you want to come to Chiefs?’ I’m like ‘Yes, I want to come to Chiefs’. I tell them who my agent is. From that conversation, I ended up signing with Arrows.

“My agent called me and said ‘You’re signing with Arrows, the Chairlady is going to give you your package and everything you want’. I’m like ‘(What about) Chiefs?’ He said, ‘If Chiefs want you they must come’, I went to Arrows and signed, if you don’t have a job, you go,” Tlolane revealed.

The account means Tlolane’s next move was not to Chiefs, despite the discussions with Ntseki’s agent and a subsequent conversation with Arthur Zwane. Instead, he signed for Golden Arrows after his agent told him the club would provide the package he wanted.

Tlolane had initially believed another move could be possible while he was in Durban, but the Chiefs deal did not go through. With his contract at Pirates ending and no agreement reached with Amakhosi, he accepted the offer from Arrows.