Are 'Mrs Jali' and Pirates soccer star still together?
COULD there be trouble in paradise for Orlando Pirates and Bafana midfielder Andile Jali and his girlfriend?
Conflicting reports have left people confused as to whether the 23-year-old Matatiele-born player and his hometown girl, Unathi Nombona, 25, are still engaged, as was reported in February, or have they split.
While Nombona maintains they are still together and Jali won’t comment, sources close to them paint a different picture. A source in Nombona’s inner circle said the two split about three months ago after having “differences ”.
“She couldn’t afford to stay in Johannesburg. She would go to his place but she lived in Midrand. She was just here (Gauteng) ... she was Eastern Cape after the split, the source said. The source also claimed that she cheated on Jali with another soccer star and Jali showed her the door.
“They were never officially engaged as his family didn’t know about the engagement, even though they knew her. It seemed like they just bought each other rings,” another source close to the couple said.
“She left when he was on the offseason break. She has been very quiet because she is embarrassed by the break-up,” the second source said.
“Who said we broke up?” Nombona asked when Sowetan called her.
“I’m not at home [Eastern Cape], I’m in Durban. Ayikho lonto [there is no such thing]!”
She denied that they had separated and claimed she relocated to Durban because she works there, though she refused to disclose what she does.
Jali refused to respond when asked about the rumours. “Leave other people’s business and focus on your own,” he said before ending the call.
Nombona has practically disappeared from social media, even failing to respond to any of her friends’ congratulatory messages on her birthday on Tuesday this week.
The news of the couple’s alleged engagement came when Jali posted a picture of their “engagement rings” on social network Instagram earlier this year. He captioned the picture “Mi&Her” (sic).
Nombona later posted the same picture on another network and tweeted: “Now it’s safe to call me Mrs Jali.” – unemployed and she was not studying. She told us that she was getting her modelling career off the ground.”
Nombona has returned home to