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By Sibongiseni Gumbi

Football Writer


‘I can play anywhere as long as Chiefs win,’ says Ngcobo

'Where this one or that one plays is neither here nor there - it does not matter,' said the lanky defender.


Njabulo Ngcobo looks to have finally nailed down a place in Stuart Baxter’s Kaizer Chiefs team after struggling to get a look in at the beginning of the season.

READ ALSO: Baccus tired of bench-warming at Chiefs, wants to go back home

Ngcobo is growing in stature in the Amakhosi team and living to his billing as a future star for the Naturena side. 

But he is not playing at central defence, a position he excelled in at Swallows FC last season paving way for admirers like Amakhosi and Mamelodi Sundowns to surface.

Baxter has unleashed Ngcobo in the defensive midfield role and despite struggling in the early days, he looks to have settled and even played the same position for Bafana Bafana in recent games. 

‘Mapholoba’ (his clan name) as Ngcobo is known as among his teammates at Naturena was the top performer for Chiefs when they beat Maritzburg United 1-0 in a DStv Premiership match at Harry Gwala Stadium on Sunday. 

Speaking after the match, he said it does not matter where he is assigned to play as long as he can contribute in helping the side collect points, he is happy.

“What’s important now is that we are winning and our points tally is slowly growing,” said Mapholoba.   

“We are united as a Chiefs family and we play with so much unity and fight for each other. Where this one or that one plays is neither here nor there – it does not matter.

“What’s important is that the team is now gelling and we want to keep that rhythm going.  

The game against Maritzburg was delayed by close to 90 minutes with an electrical failure announced as the reason for the embarrassing situation.

Ngcobo admits that it affected them a little which is why they had a slow start and only really started playing well in the second half of the match.

Chiefs’ next game is against AmaZulu FC on Wednesday. Both sides are high in confidence and it should be a real test for the Durban and Joburg teams respectively. 

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