Kaizer Chiefs targeting league title in two or three years from now - Khalil Ben Youssef

Ben Youssef, speaking in a Nedbank Cup press conference ahead of their last 32 game against lower division side Free Agents FC, Ben Youssef says winning this tournament is one of their primary targets.

This tournament qualifies teams to the CAF Confederation Cup, a stage that Ben Youssef, says they want to return to.

“To be honest with you what we’ve discussed about the project at Kaizer Chiefs is to beat the other team then next year or in two or three years it’s to fight for the league. We have to come back, when I was young, I remember I used to see Kaizer Chiefs in the African Cup [CAF competitions] in the finals or semifinals, it was one of the best teams in Africa,” Ben Youssef said.

So we want to come back to Africa [Play in CAF competitions]. f you want to come back to Africa you have two choices, you have to finish in the top three or win this cup. As a big team we know every competition you play, you play to win the competition.

“If you play in the league, you play to win the league. Every cup you have to play to win, we don’t know what they prepared for us but we will do our best.”

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Coming up against a tricky lower division opponent like Free Agents, can be a bit of a challenge for Chiefs, with some players being complacent going to this game.

Ben Youssef, says mental strength becomes important going to this game.

“For us as coaches, when you play a cup game you have to be careful when you play a team in the lower division. Like I said we have to prepare mentally, it’s a very difficult game, it’s a cup game. It’s not like when you play a big team against a big team the players prepare themselves already because they know they have to perform, they have to do well,” he added.

“As Africans we have problems when we play against teams in the lower division, we always think we’ll win the game before we play and for that, we’ve discussed it a lot with them [players], we prepared them that this is going to be one of the most difficult games this season. We know what we have to do.”