JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA – JANUARY 12: George Maluleka of Kaizer Chiefs during the Absa Premiership match between Kaizer Chiefs and Cape Town City FC at FNB Stadium on January 12, 2020 in Johannesburg, South Africa. (Photo by Lefty Shivambu/Gallo Images)
From Kaizer Chiefs to Mamelodi Sundowns: George Maluleka reveals all!
George Maluleka has narrated how his controverisal move from Kaizer Chiefs to Mamelodi Sundowns came about.
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA – JANUARY 12: George Maluleka of Kaizer Chiefs during the Absa Premiership match between Kaizer Chiefs and Cape Town City FC at FNB Stadium on January 12, 2020 in Johannesburg, South Africa. (Photo by Lefty Shivambu/Gallo Images)
George Maluleka has narrated how his controversial move from Kaizer Chiefs to Mamelodi Sundowns came about.
The midfielder left Amakhosi in March 2020 after it emerged that he had already signed a pre-contract with the Brazilians.
Maluleka said he negotiated with Chiefs for long, and he told the Soweto giants that he needed security; something he feels they weren’t prepared to offer him.
“We negotiated for long, going back and forth,” Maluleka told KickOff Magazine.
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“I made it no secret that I needed security as well, and personally I felt like I didn’t have that,” he said.
“I don’t mean to say I didn’t trust Chiefs at that time, but then this is what happens during negotiations.”
Furthermore, Maluleka revealed he didn’t want to leave Chiefs but he couldn’t settle for less after they failed to agree terms on a new deal.
“Chiefs said we will look after you and they did that for all the years that I was there. I didn’t want to leave but it then happened that after we negotiated, we couldn’t agree on terms,” added Maluleka.
Maluleka added that he only listened to offers elsewhere as soon as it was clear that he couldn’t reach an agreement with Chiefs. Sundowns eventually won the race for his signature.
“It was then that I pursued the option of the other people that had shown interest in me and went to hear what they had to say,” he continued.
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“This was after I had exhausted my talks with Chiefs. There were a lot of breakdowns during the talks and we just couldn’t find common ground.”
Maluleka said, at one stage, Chiefs made it look like he was old and didn’t deserve what he was proposing, and that’s one of the things that made the talks to breakdown.
“On the other side [Chiefs], it was made to look like I was now old, yet overseas there are players who are at their peak at 32,” concluded Maluleka.
