Fortune Makaringe made "promise" to join Kaizer Chiefs at the start of the current season, coach Ernst Middendorp has surprisingly revealed.
The German mentor was asked for this thoughts on the midfielder, now an Orlando Pirates player following his big transfer in July last year, crediting him for making him the player that he is today while the two were together at Maritzburg United.
"Ja, it's nice. I think it's a lot of players, not only Makaringe, but (Siphesihle) Ndlovu and Dumisani Zuma and others in the PSL who have received the opportunity to play at a professional level," Middendorp said.
"Fortune Makaringe was quite unstructured. We played him his first game in Polokwane and we had to take him out after 45 minutes, it was not possible and he didn't fit in like he should have. But he developed himself under the guidance of different coaches and he is now an established player with ambitions to play for the national team."
And then the Chiefs coach confirmed, for the first time, that Makaringe was supposed to join him at Naturena this season.
"That is why I am totally unhappy with Makaringe – there was more or less a certain promise that he would come to me in the beginning of the season. I am very unhappy that he did not follow this promise he put in place at a certain time in the first four months of 2019," Middendorp explained.
"But he made his decision and he is in a very fantastic situation, progressing match by match. You can only compliment him, in the end we only give guidance as coaches. We only give players a certain introduction because of what we see, where he ends up is for the player himself and how serious he is about his career."
