Pitso Mosimane confirms that Mamelodi Sundowns will let Thela Ngobeni leave

Mamelodi Sundowns goalkeeper Thela Ngobeni’s time at the Tshwane giants looks to be up, if head coach Pitso Mosimane’s utterances are anything to go by.

Ngobeni has endured a difficult time at Sundowns since joining the club in 2013, where he has been sent out on a couple of loan spells.

Ngobeni, who was most recently loaned out to Free State Stars for the 2017/18 PSL returned to his parent club last season.

However, the 30-year-old failed to break into the first team and did not make a single appearance in Sundowns’ successful 2018/19 campaign.

This led to rumours suggesting that Ngobeni was in advanced talks with Highlands Park, and while official confirmation is yet to be made regarding the move, a transfer away from Chloorkop does seem imminent.  

“I want a younger goalkeeper,” Mosimane told the media.

“We are killing Thela’s career because he really needs to play. And he is not going to play ahead of Kennedy (Mweene) in the Caf Champions League,” Mosimane admitted.

“He did well at Free State, but we will let him go now. He should go play – if we regret it’s okay,” he explained.

Ngobeni has also previously been linked with Kaizer Chiefs during the January transfer window, but a move failed to materialise.

“It will be one of those. There is no coach who will ever say he has no regrets. We have all signed players before and realised it didn’t work out,” he concluded.

One factor that made Ngobeni’s time at the club difficult was that he came up against three top class keepers.

Aside from Ngobeni, Mosimane brought on board Reyaad Pieterse to compete alongside Mweene and Denis Onyango, with the latter, the coach’s preferred choice.