SETTING SAIL
Chiefs have terminated Xulu’s five-year contract after just two years and the former FC Rostov defender says he wants decent compensation.
A showdown is looming between former Bafana Bafana centreback Siyanda Xulu and Kaizer Chiefs over the settlement of his contract after the club announced he was no longer wanted.
Chiefs said last month that the 25-year-old, who has won four caps and played in Russia’s Premier League, was one of seven players leaving after his contract was terminated.
But the player’s legal representatives say that is not the case and that Xulu still has three seasons left on his contract.
He signed a five-year deal when he first joined the club from FC Rostov in 2015 on a package of R2 million per year. Thus his scant 10 appearances for AmaKhosi over the last 24 months have come at a high cost to the club
According to agent Paul Mitchell, Chiefs only wanted to pay Xulu a derisory settlement of a few months’ salary in lieu of the termination of his contract, but he and Xulu want a decent offer, otherwise will take matter to FIFA where Xulu could be entitled to as much as R6 million from Chiefs.
Xulu joined the club in 2015 and played in the MTN8 at the start of season, but after Chiefs were beaten 1-0 by Ajax Cape Town in the final in Port Elizabeth he was dropped and has hardly featured since.
Over the last two seasons he has started only six league games. Last season he played just once as Chiefs finished fifth in the Premier Soccer League standings.
Coach Steve Komphela has made it clear he sees no place for Xulu in his squad and Chiefs announced the termination of his deal last month, when they also revealed that the contracts of Togo international Camaldien Abraw, Lucky Baloyi, Zambian striker Lewis Macha, Ennocent Mkhabela and Siphelele Mthembu had been terminated.
But Xulu’s team say negotiations are far from settled and refuse to be fobbed off. Xulu wants decent compensation, as was the case when he left Rostov in 2015 with one year left on his contract.
Xulu, who was a teenager when he made his PSL debut at Mamelodi Sundowns and won his first Bafana cap against Gabon in 2012, is unlikely to be short of suitors once he is officially off Chiefs’ books.