Today’s Orlando Pirates news wrap looks at the latest on Mbekezeli Mbokazi, Lyle Foster and an upcoming Champions League clash.
MC Alger test is next on the schedule
Pirates will be quietly confident they can stamp their ticket into the Champions League semi-finals. They face the Algerian side MC Alger over two legs in the quarter-finals. The first leg takes place on Tuesday, 01 April at 21:00 in North Africa. Alger is currently in charge of the Algerian Ligue 1 with a seven-point lead at the summit. That’s after 20 league outings.
Foster could return to the EPL at the first time of asking
Lancashire club Burnley paid a fee rising to €11m to sign Lyle Foster from Westerlo. There’s no reason why a host of other Premier League clubs wouldn’t jump at the chance of signing the hard-working South African for around double that. Foster scored five goals and provided three assists in 24 top-flight appearances in 2023-2024; 22 were starts.
Burnley’s MVP could steer them back to the promised land
It’s no exaggeration to say he was arguably their best player in a season to end in relegation heartbreak. To produce those numbers in a side struggling in the basement is a superb achievement. In October 2023, Foster was valued at €13 million; that number has dropped to €9 million now that the Clarets are a Championship Side. That might change by May, though. And if he continues to be one of their most reliable performers, they could fetch a big fee by selling him to a top EPL side. Foster opened the scoring for Bafana in their impressive 2-0 win at Benin on Tuesday.
Mbokazi is a future great
Meanwhile, 5 March 2025 might go down as a big day in the history of the club. 19-year-old Mbekezeli Mbokazi, affectionately known as TLB, made his Orlando Pirates debut, and we might look back on that as a huge watershed moment. It was a 1-0 win for Pirates and, fittingly, Mbokazi marked his bow with a clean sheet. It’s the first of many, and DStv Diski Challenge [DDC] head coach Joseph Makhanya has played a big role in his rise to prominence. Mbokazi started subsequent matches against SuperSport in the Nedbank Cup (he scored the opener in a 2-2 draw, Pirates eventually prevailed on penalties) and against Stellenbosch in a 0-0 draw.
Big game player
Mbokazi was the Man of the Match in that thrilling cup tie against Matsatsantsa and repeated the trick by earning the accolade in Pirates’ 2-1 win over Sundowns. It’s a result that will breathe new life into their title challenge.
Will Pirates make the final four in the Champions League?
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