Kaizer Chiefs have confirmed they entered talks with SuperSport United over midfielder Teboho Mokoena and have not ruled out resuming discussions with the player.
This comes as Mamelodi Sundowns are understood to be close to securing the signature of the Bafana Bafana star.
Mokoena’s agent, Glyn Binkin, has confirmed that his player “has agreed terms with the buying club, which is Sundowns and I'd like to believe talks are at an advanced stage.”
“I think the parties have had fantastic discussions over the last few weeks, and I think a transaction will be concluded,” Binkin told Thomas Mlambo's The Ultimate Sports Show on Metro FM on Tuesday.
Masandawana’s moves appear to have eclipsed Chiefs’ interest but Amakhosi spokesperson Vina Maphosa says that does not mean they are out of the picture.
“There were discussions, and that's what it is,” Maphosa told Sowetan Live.
“If I come to you and discuss with you, and then we end at a certain point, it means that point is the end.
"It doesn't mean it didn't go further. It might have been that from where the discussions were we retreated back to our base camp to go and analyse how the discussions were going.
“What if we come back to him [Binkin] tomorrow and say we want to resume?
"Did he mention if there were deadlines? That is where the difficulty is.
"What he said doesn't reveal where we ended with him.”
Chiefs’ remarks come after Binkin had suggested the Soweto giants have ended their interest in the player.
Binkin insisted it is the Brazilians who have been made strides on landing Mokoena’s signature.
“There was interest, from Kaizer Chiefs in particular, but I think they didn't engage further with SuperSport,” said Binkin.
“I think there was an initial discussion and that discussion wasn't taken any further.
“I think from a player's perspective he would have been able to agree terms on that side too. But there are two parts of the equation and Sundowns were able to manage expectations on both sides of the table [with player and selling club], so that made things a lot easier.”
GOAL recently reported that Mokoena has also attracted the interest of Belgian giants Anderlecht.
But Binkin explained why Anderlecht are behind Sundowns in the race for the player’s signature.
The agent also claimed the player is wanted in Egypt.
“There was no offer from Anderlecht. My colleagues in Europe spoke to Anderlecht, they do like the player, but he's not their number one target,” Binkin explained.
“They described their target as a 'recovering 6', which would be a big, strong Yaya Toure or William Carvalho type of player, and Teboho doesn't fit that mould.
“In this window, there haven't been international offers so we decided to look at what was available locally and potentially in North Africa, because there was some interest from Egypt.”
