ED AARONS

JOHANNESBURG - The race for the signature of Bafana Bafana winger Siphiwe Tshabalala has yet to catch fire, despite erroneous claims that the Kaizer Chiefs player had joined Manchester United.

Yesterday morning, the 25-year-old’s Wikipedia page briefly stated that he had joined the 18-time English champions in a deal worth a staggering R80-million but Amakhosi’s football manager Bobby Motaung issued a statement on the club’s website to deny the story.

“Siphiwe is at camp with the rest of the players, having returned to training following an extended break,” it said.

“The reports linking him to Manchester United and any other club at this stage is a blatant lie. We will be calling a press conference in the next couple of days to make relevant announcements ahead of the 2010/2011 campaign.”

The player who scored the opening goal of the 2010 World Cup has also been linked with a move to Romanians Steaua Bucharest but his agent Jazzman Mahlakgane was adamant no firm offer had been made by the team who won the European Cup in 1986.

He said: “We are expecting a few offers in the next few days but there has been nothing at all from Romania. The only firm offer that we have had came from Turkish club Sivasspor for 1,5-million euros but because they weren’t prepared to put in a sell-on clause of 25%, Chiefs weren’t interested.”

Mahlakgane added: “Obviously he’d be disappointed if he doesn’t move after having such a great World Cup but ultimately he still has a good contract with Chiefs so it wouldn’t be the end of the world if he had to stay.”