Jele’s debut at Royal AM set to be delayed

Former Orlando Pirates captain Happy Jele will have to wait a little bit longer before he makes his debut for his new club Royal AM.

Jele was a free agent since the beginning of the 2022/23 DStv Premiership season after parting ways with Soweto giants; Orlando Pirates putting to an end his 16-year stay at the club.

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The Pirates legend, Jele joined the Kwa Zulu-Natal outfit in the January transfer window after training with them for some time.

Royal AM officially announced the arrival of the veteran defender, Jele, on 3 February 2023 to bolster the defensive line at the club.

Jele’s arrival came a few days after the club had restructured their technical team. John Maduka returned to the club for his second tenure.

On the other hand, veteran coach Khabo Zondo was deployed to the reserve team in the DStv Diski Challenge.

The experienced centre-back was sent off after being shown a straight red card on the last day of the 2021/22 season against SuperSport United.

Jele, who was in action for Pirates at the time was deemed to have fouled Thamsanqa Gabuza by committing a tackle that denied the striker a goal scoring opportunity.

Itching to get back to the field of play after a lengthy time out, Jele is suspended for Thwihli Thwahla’s next two encounters.

Therefore, he is unavailable for selection against SuperSport United and for the KZN derby against AmaZulu FC. The matches will be played on 18 and 25 February respectively.

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The 36-year-old will likely his play his first Royal AM match on 4 March. On the day, the Shauwn Mkhize-owned side will host Sekhukhune United at home in a league encounter.

Kickoff at Chatsworth Stadium is at 3:30pm.