CUTHBERT MALAJILA has agreed terms with Absa Premier Soccer League side Mamelodi Sundowns with the Warriors striker expected to formally join the mega rich club in the July transfer window.
Report by Henry Mhara
Malajila has reportedly signed a five-year deal which should be announced by the club this week.
“A pre-contract has been signed,” said a source.
“They are a few things they are still discussing, but that should not be an issue. There is a meeting this evening (yesterday) where it’s most likely that Malajila will sign before he leaves for Zimbabwe on Wednesday (tomorrow),” said another high placed source.
While refusing to discuss the impending deal, Malajila confirmed that he is coming home tomorrow.
Sundowns officials were also not keen to discuss, but their coach Pitso Mosimane gave the biggest hint that Malajila, who turns 28 on October 3, would be heading part of his dressing room next season.
“We have to reinforce next season starting with the striking force. You can see that we create a lot of scoring chances, but we can’t score. So what we need first is to reinforce the striking department then look at what else we can add. We can’t say now. We will have a briefing where we will announce which players we have signed, and not now, but when the team is right,” said Mosimane yesterday.
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With Nyasha Mushekwi’s expected move to Europe this year, Sundowns is lining up Malajila to fill in the void as they prepare for a better season next year after finishing 10th this season.
Malajila had a fairytale season with Maritzburg United, scoring 11 goals in the just ended season to finish third on the top goal scorers list.
The goals, including a late winner against Orlando Pirates on Saturday, helped the modest Maritzburg to a top eight finish in the league.
At Sundowns, he will join fellow countrymen Method Mwanjali and Esrom Nyandoro, who is celebrating 10 years at Chloorkop since his arrival at former Zimbabwe champions AmaZulu.
Nyandoro has permanent residency in South Africa, while two Ghanaians who arrived in January have failed to impress and could be offloaded to free up some space for Malajila.
Lionel Mtizwa is also expected to return from a season loan spell at Pretoria University while Khama Billiat has also been heavily linked with the Chloorkop side. Sundowns reportedly wanted to sign the slippery winger in the January transfer window, but Billiat told NewsDay Sport then that he could not move as he wanted to help his club Ajax Cape Town avoids relegation.
With top flight football now secured for the Cape Town side after walloping Golden Arrows 3-0 in the last game of the season, Billiat who has a 10 million rand price tag, is set to leave.
Sundowns have also officially confirmed their interest in SuperSport United striker, Kermit Erasmus. Erasmus’ representative, Rob Moore, recently explained to Soccer Laduma that Sundowns are keen to land the forward, although that there are number of clubs that are monitoring the striker’s situation.
Stan Matthews, Matsatsantsa’s director of football, has now revealed to the Siya crew that the Brazilians have contacted SuperSport, but that his side is fully focused on the Nedbank Cup final that takes place this weekend.
Matthews said: “Sundowns have shown an interest in Kermit, but we haven’t spoken about any details yet, we’ll only address that after the Nedbank Cup final.”
With Sundowns, Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates all said to be keeping a close eye on the 22-year-old, and interest being shown in him from abroad, it is looking ever more unlikely that Erasmus will still be with SuperSport come the start of the 2013-2014 season.
