Nurkovic is a perfect PSL fit
Stuart Who? was a rather unpleasant newspaper headline reserved for Stuart Baxter when he was first appointed Bafana Bafana head coach in 2004.
The jury is still slightly out on whether Baxter was a success as Bafana coach, either in his first spell, or his second, which ended this year, but there can be no doubting his trophy haul at club level, where with Kaizer Chiefs he won two league titles, a Nedbank Cup and an MTN8, and with SuperSport United he won back-to-back Nedbank Cups.
Chiefs haven’t won a trophy since Baxter left in 2015, though that looks all-themore likely to change this season, in an Amakhosi side spearheaded by another foreigner who arrived on these shores with little known about his previous exploits.
I am not talking here, of course, about Ernst Middendorp, who has coached a swathe of clubs across the PSL, but Chiefs striker Samir Nurkovic, who came here with a prolific record in the Slovakian second division, but with little else to indicate he would be a success in the South African top flight.
The 27 year-old Serbian arrived at a Chiefs side that had finished a pathetic ninth in the 2018/19 campaign, and had been humbled in their last match of the season by National First Division side TS Galaxy in the Nedbank Cup final.
Chiefs strikers have been pretty hit and miss over the past few seasons, with names like Bongani Ndulula, Sthembiso Ngcobo and Gustavo Paez unlikely to fill the hearts of Amakhosi fans with too much joy.
Nurkovic, however, has fitted into Middendorp’s side at Chiefs as if he was made to play in the PSL, the ideal target man who can both hold up play and assist his teammates, and hit the back of the net with unerring accuracy too, as emphasised with a hat-trick against Bloemfontein Celtic on Saturday that was as clinical as I can recall in the PSL for some time.
Nurkovic now has nine goals in 14 appearances for Chiefs this season in all competitions, and has been involved in plenty more, as Chiefs have stormed 10 points clear at the top of the table.
This is not the only reason Nurkovic appears to already be a fan’s favourite – his love of AmaPiano music has shown a willingness to embrace South African culture and earned him the nickname Kokota.
Nurkovic went on trip to Austria for a family reunion during the last international break, but what he spoke about on his return was not homesickness, but how he told his family that they must come out here as soon as possible to experience the amazing atmosphere at PSL matches.
The winner of Phakaaathi’s Player--of-theMonth for November simply gets better and better, and is surely the leading candidate now for the Lesley Manyathela Golden Boot at the end of the season.
It is, indeed, easy to see him going past the 20 goal mark, something that has not been achieved in the Absa Premiership for some time.
In the meantime, Chiefs fans can bathe in an attack, with Leonardo Castro, Dumisani Zuma, Lebo Manyama and Khama Billiat, that even when their defence has an off-day, as happened against Celtic, can propel the team to victory.
That is the stuff of champions, and it is hard to see anyone catching Amakhosi now, with Nurkovic right at the head of the runaway train.