Sphumelele Shamase set to join twin Thubelihle in Lithuania

Sphumelele, who was last season's Hollywoodbets Super League top goal scorer with 22 in 25 matches, has been delayed by her visa, which was requested slightly later due to her last national team call-up.

The 22-year-old duo's agent Chris Atkins of US-based player management agency TMJ, shared with the public broadcaster how soon they expect the next steps in their careers to be finalised.

"So, Sphumelele, the plan is she'll be joining her sister in the near future we're just waiting on her visa to be granted, it was delayed as she was in the international camp longer than her sister recently. So, hopefully in the next week or 10 days she's also be on the move," Atkins said.

Both players have penned one-year contracts with options to extend, but the aim is for them to quickly adapt to life as full-time professional players outside of the country before, hopefully, earning moves to bigger clubs in Europe or elsewhere.

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"So, it's one year with an option to extend for both parties, so, it could end up being longer. They obviously moved at the end of the registration with UJ. So, we'll have to see how this year plays out in terms of what the plan is going forward,” he added.

“I think even Gintra wouldn't mind me saying it, it's obviously a step in their development, it's not the end goal to play in Lithuania but it's a route to where they want to get to. Fingers crossed they keep pushing forward, they learn about life as a professional outside of South Africa and then we can analyse their options in a year from now."

Atkins further confirmed that interest was not limited to Lithuania, but several factors were taken into consideration when it was decided that Gintra would be the right fit for the twins.

"In terms of other offers, yeah there was interest but Gintra moved farely early and a club with a coach who has a good history of developing players coming out of Africa including Rachael Kundananji who recently broke the world record, she spent three years under the coach in Kazakhstan at the time. So, he has a good track record in the respect so it seemed like a good place for them to begin their development."