Motaung Jr says Kaizer Chiefs have great expectations of coach Nasreddine Nabi in his second season

Kaizer Chiefs had an indifferent 2024/25 campaign. On one hand the struggling Soweto giants ended a 10-year trophy drought by clinching the Nedbank Cup in May – beating bitter rivals Orlando Pirates 2-1 to mend years of heartache for all associated with the club.

On the other hand, Amakhosi once again toiled in the Premiership, finishing outside of the top eight and failing to qualify for MTN8 participation for the second successive season. The only positive from this poor league campaign (in which they finished ninth) was that Chiefs improved on the 2023/24 placing of tenth spot.

Having appointed Tunisian Nasreddine Nabi prior to the start of last season, there was hope that Chiefs could finally turn the corner after years of suffering, despite being a global brand.

Nabi’s first season  

Nabi came to South Africa (SA) after one season of coaching Moroccan side AS FAR, with whom he secured the league runners-up medal, behind Raja Casablanca. It was an identical outcome in the Throne Cup, with Raja edging AS FAR 2-1 in the domestic tournament.

Before heading to Morocco, Nabi coached teams in countries such as Libya, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates and Tanzania. 

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In the latter country, the tactician was in charge of Young Africans (more commonly known as Yanga) and won two league titles on the spin. This includes winning the Tanzanian Premier League without tasting a single defeat during the 30-game 2021/22 campaign.

So, when he landed in Johannesburg, there was an air of expectation within the Amakhosi ranks that the club’s long-forgotten glory days would return. Nabi managed two wins from his first two Premiership matches at the helm, in front of capacity crowds, to stoke this flame of hope.

However, it was soon back to the same old inconsistent displays as the season progressed. Amakhosi only managed six more wins to add to those first two – ending the season with just eight victories. They suffered almost double that in defeats, losing 12 times in their 28 league matches. It was simply not good enough for a team of Amakhosi’s stature.

Kaizer Jr calls for consistency 

The team was hosted for dinner by Dutch ambassador to SA Joanne Doornewaard, at her Pretoria residence prior to the team jetting to the Netherlands for pre-season. There, Chiefs sporting director Kaizer Motaung Jr told Daily Maverick that the team has bigger ambitions in Nabi’s second season.

He said that due to a combination of factors, including a brand new technical team, as well as a squad filled with young players,  they were not expecting miracles in Nabi’s first season. Even though a top-eight finish would have been the bare minimum for the team.

“The league is really a platform for consistency. That’s where your process and your consistent preparation show, with the points that you tally up. We were very disappointed not to finish in the top eight because we had high ambitions,” said Motaung, reflecting on the 2024/25 season.

“We invested quite heavily in our technical staff and the squad that we wanted to put together. At the same time, we had a lot of young players and we knew there were going to be some inconsistencies – especially with our technical staff settling in and bringing in new ideas and a new way of working within the group,” Motaung stated.

Qualification target

Motaung said Amakhosi had set a target of qualifying for the Confederation Cup for Nabi and his colleagues. From a South African perspective, qualifying for the Confederation of African Football’s (Caf) second-tier competition requires a third-place league finish, or winning the Nedbank Cup.

Chiefs qualified via the latter route, and the Soweto giants are targeting great performances in the auxiliary continental competition. The last time they played in Africa, during the 2020/21 season, they reached the final of the African Champions League before being pummelled 3-0 by Al Ahly.

“[We] are definitely looking at the second season to be able to have a very different approach to our league performance. Of course, we want to retain the Nedbank Cup and of course we want to challenge for honours on the continent, because the Confed is something that we had set before the start of the season as a target for us to get back into Africa with. Now we’re there and also have some ambitions around that,” said the sporting director.

Pre-season Netherlands prep

Motaung is hopeful that the team’s tour of the Netherlands, where they will come up against some tough Dutch teams, will be the perfect catalyst for an improved overall showing in 2025/26. During their two-week Netherlands trip, Amakhosi will play against Utrecht, NEC Nijmegen, PEC Zwolle and Twente. They have already played Vitesse, losing 2-1 on Tuesday, 8 July.

But for the Chiefs hierarchy it’s not so much about the results than it is about fostering team cohesion and raising the level ahead of what will be an extremely important season for Nabi’s future.  

“A pre-season is the most fundamental foundation for your season. If you get that right, you set yourself up for a very good season. So that was the intention when we put our programme together in terms of the opposition we chose and wanted to partner with,” Motaung said.    

“One of the main keys in having a pre-season, is having a stiff and credible opposition. We’re very privileged to have the games we’re going to have – tough ones to prepare the team in a very big way and hopefully to represent the Kaizer Chiefs brand the best way we can,” he added.

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“Hopefully it will be an injury-free trip. So, we can come back and hit the ground running. We know that our Confed preliminary games are going to be quite early in August, that’s also another reason why we opted for very strong opponents in the pre-season,” said Motaung.

“Because when you get back, there’s not much time to prepare – only about a week. We have a Toyota Cup game and then we have the league starting. We’re very aware of the challenge at hand and this tour is going to put us in the best-prepared state going forward.” DM