Player’s contract elapses at the end of the season
LETLHOGILE MPUANG
Township Rollers are in the dark over the future of the country’s number one goalkeeper Kabelo Dambe, with his contract with the club set for expiry at the end of the season. Dambe joined Rollers on a season long contract last year (July), after he was released by South African Premier Soccer League side Platinum Stars.
Since his arrival, the lanky shot stopper has powered on to become coach Mark Harrison’s first choice keeper and has consolidated his place as a key figure for the national team as well.
However, the log leaders currently find themselves in a position where they are left only to guess about the player’s future. This was revealed by the club’s Public Relations Officer Bafana Pheto in an interview with Gazette Sport last week.
“Dambe has an agent (Paul Mitchell), and it is him who is responsible to handling this issue. We had signed the player on a season long contract which will expire soon, but cannot say anything much about his future,” said Pheto.
Pheto revealed that the reason the keeper settled for a short term deal was due to that Mitchell was working on getting a move to Europe for the player.
“Paul (Mitchell) told us he was working on getting Dambe a move to Europe, and that we (Rollers) only hold on to the player for the meantime, but at the moment he has not come back to us.
We are yet to sit with him and discuss the way forward, and maybe it could be mainly because our agreement with player has not expired yet,” added the club’s head of communications.
“Dambe is a great talent, and the truth is we would like to keep the player, but should it happen that we lose him we are prepared. The team currently has four goal keepers in Dambe, Noah (Maposa), Kgosipula and Mwampule Masule who is currently away on loan. If Dambe leaves, it would mean that we would have to sign one more keeper to replace him,” he ended.
The PRO rounded off his remarks by revealing that the club is likely to call back Masule from BDF XI for the start of next season. Attempts to contact Mitchell’s UK line hit a snag as it was unavailable.
This publication has learned that Mitchell has his eyes set for Scandinavian countries as Dambe’s next destination with Slovakia also being a likely stop.
With his diverse and many European connections, a move certainly looks possible. The Rollers youth product was reported to had turned down moves from Ajax Cape Town and Jomo Cosmos last year in favour of a move back home.