PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA – MAY 07: Sundowns head coach Pitso Mosimane and Khama Billiat during the CAF Confederations Cup match between Mamelodi Sundowns and Medeama at Lucas Moripe Stadium on May 07, 2016 in Pretoria, South Africa. (Photo by Lefty Shivambu/Gallo Images)
Khama Billiat should link up with Pitso Mosimane says former teammate
Would Khama Billiat be best served leaving Kaizer Chiefs at the end of the season or does he still have something to offer Gavin Hunt’s side?
PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA – MAY 07: Sundowns head coach Pitso Mosimane and Khama Billiat during the CAF Confederations Cup match between Mamelodi Sundowns and Medeama at Lucas Moripe Stadium on May 07, 2016 in Pretoria, South Africa. (Photo by Lefty Shivambu/Gallo Images)
A former teammate of Khama Billiat, Brent Carelse, has urged the Zimbabwe international to leave Kaizer Chiefs suggesting a move to North Africa.
Carelse played with Billiat at Ajax Cape Town and believes the striker can come good but opined that it would not be at Naturena.
The wrong fit
In a recent interview with KickOff, Carelse was asked if Billiat should leave Kaizer Chiefs and responded: “At the moment if I was him then yes.
Carelse believes that Kaizer Chiefs were never a good fit for Billiat.
“He has been at Chiefs for three years now and has nothing to show for it because he hasn’t won anything be it an individual award or a trophy with the club. If he had been at Sundowns it would have been a different story by now. What has happened at Chiefs has not been good for him as a forward player especially this season. Khama has felt too much of the pressure and tried too hard to impress which hasn’t helped.
“Khama Billiat has lost form because the team that he joined was the wrong choice. It didn’t appear a wrong choice at the time when he joined but now if he looks back, he will say ‘this would have been better if I went to North Africa or stayed at Sundowns’. His form is not the same, but the club is to blame as well because you cannot have a player of his quality and within a space of three to four months, he is all of a sudden an average player.
“I think right now he is saying to himself ‘I made a wrong move here’ and that happens in football. Players do go to the wrong teams and what is expected of you doesn’t happen. Chiefs wanted to show Sundowns that they can match and better what they were offering.”
Khama Billiat should link up with Pitso Mosimane
Billiat’s age likely rules him out of a move to Europe but Carelse suggested that he could re-unite with Pitso Mosimane at Al-Ahly.
“It is going to be a stumbling block that he is 30 now and so he cannot go and play in the mainstream leagues of Europe. He can only go to the smaller leagues, but the best route would be to go to North Africa. Maybe Pitso [Mosimane] can revive him because I don’t see him thriving at Chiefs considering the way Gavin Hunt plays. Gavin is about teamwork and doesn’t care how many players you dribble,” Carelse explained.
“Khama thrives in a space where he is appreciated by those around him. If you watch Khama playing now, he doesn’t move with the freedom that he enjoys. He is not turning the magic anymore, yet he is a special player. Being a special player that he is, he needs to feel good about himself and have the confidence but that has not been happening at Chiefs.”
