Kaizer Chiefs play arguably the biggest match in the club's history when they clash with Al Ahly on Saturday night in the 2021 Caf Champions League final at the Mohamed V Stadium in Casablanca, Morocco.
For decades, Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates have been South Africa's two biggest, best supported, and most famous clubs, although in the last 25 years, Mamelodi Sundowns have closed the gap.
Chiefs though remain the country's biggest brand, very well known across Africa as well as globally, while the Soweto derby against Pirates is respected world-wide as one of the continent's greatest games.
Floundering giants
However, the shine has been taken off the Soweto derby over the past five years to eight years, as both Chiefs and Pirates' fortunes have flagged.
When Pirates managed to win the season-opening MTN8 trophy last December, it ended a six-year wait for silverware.
Amakhosi meanwhile are also without any success in six years, since winning the league title in 2015.
One has to go back to the period between 2011 and 2015, when between them the Soweto giants won four of the five league titles (two each), to when the derby really meant something, to when the stakes were really high.
Competitions such as the season-opening Black Label Cup between Chiefs and Pirates have also in recent years meant the sides have met a lot, arguably cheapening the quality of the derby.
Gallo
Rebuild
With little on the line in most recent derbies (last season’s MTN8 semi-finals was one exception), the Chiefs vs Pirates fixture has become less important than it used to be.
And with Chiefs in a rebuilding phase – due to an ageing squad and their recently-completed transfer ban, Saturday’s Champions League final against Pitso Mosimane's Ahly side takes on a far greater significance than any recent Soweto derby.
Victory for Amakhosi would be huge. It would confirm that their run to the final was deserved and did not contain a large slice of good fortune.
It would reconfirm their status as one of Africa’s biggest clubs, and perhaps most importantly, help the team to attract the kind of top players needed to rebuild for the future.
It would of course also allow them to draw level with domestic rivals Sundowns and Pirates, who each have one Champions League star on their badge.
Unlike recent Soweto derbies, the stakes could not be higher on Saturday in Casablanca.
.jpg?auto=webp&format=pjpg&width=640&quality=60)
