SuperSport chief scout looking for Ditlhokwe replacement

The Botswana international will join Kaizer Chiefs at the end of the season having snubbed a new contract in favour of moving to Naturena, and Paul Matthews is the man tasked with finding another gem.  

It’s likely that Ditlhokwe’s successor will come from elsewhere on the continent, the SuperSport boss told SABC Sport. 

“We’ve just lost Ditlhokwe, which means we are going to need to go back into Africa and find ourselves a good foreign centre back – that’s our model. One thing I am confident in is my chief scout, Paul Matthews, he has a wonderful eye and has unearthed wonderful talent,” Matthews explained. 

“Everyone is raving now about Patrick Maswanganyi, finding him from nowhere. TT [Ditlhokwe] himself [was] from a dusty place in Botswana.” 

The Premier Soccer League allows member clubs to register five international players at any given time if they are not permanent residents, so that means Matsatsantsa do still have a foreign spot available, paving the way for a free agent. 

“From our point of view, we have a great amount of confidence in Paul and [coach] Gavin Hunt to come up with alternative names. We’ve got two foreign players coming on trial in the next couple of week and already looking towards July,” the CEO added. 

“We’ve got free foreign space, so we are open to bringing the right type of person in who is available and out of contract immediately.”