Free Agents chase their dream against Kaizer Chiefs

This is how the club owner and head coach Olaitan Oladeru described the main reason behind the club's formation in 2018.

The ABC Motsepe League side faces Amakhosi at FNB stadium on Sunday evening, looking beyond just the result.

"The team was formed in 2018. We created the team because of a lot of players that don't have a team that are roaming around the streets and don't have a place to train. So, we came up with the idea that we'll provide a place for them to train then we can go around play tournaments and friendly matches and see maybe one or two will have opportunities to secure a better job,” Oladeru said.

“So, that was the purpose of starting the team in the first place. Anybody that secures the team can go freely without getting any money from anybody, we are just providing a place for them to get back on their feet."

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It’s been a long journey for this club, from playing as an invitational team in Kasi football tournaments around Gauteng to finally affiliating in an association football league.

The team has also always been dominated by local talent, with some few foreign nationals, and Oladeru explains.

"I wouldn't say it was a difficult transformation because when we started Free Agents, we had a lot of foreigners, yes but remember we still had about eight or 10 South Africans which, six or seven of them are still with us now,” he added.

“So, to me, you could actually tell, people watching from outside will see that, okay this is a foreign team, they might not even be able to differentiate between the foreigners that play amongst us but to me, I find it hard to see except for the language that we speak, I find it hard to see the difference.

“It was much easier for me when we moved to the league, I already knew the culture, I already understood a few things that were demanded from the South African players compared to [the foreigners].

“So, it wasn't that difficult for me or the team to move from being played by foreign players in a tournament to suddenly make it a team of 95% South African and 2% foreigner."