Sekhukhune United assistant coach Thabo Senong has backed Yusuf Maart to flourish at Kaizer Chiefs, hailing Babina Noko’s former captain as a “student of the game”.
Chiefs announced the arrival of Maart most recently, with the Bafana Bafana international signing a three-year deal with a two-year option.
Senong, Maart’s coach at Sekhukhune, believes the midfielder will adapt quickly at Naturena and hit the ground running.
“We are proud as a club, Sekhukhune, because Yusuf was an important player in our group, and he is a good professional on and off the field,” Senong told the Siya crew.
“He was the captain of the team, and he helped our team a lot to be stable in the league because he played 28 matches in total and had three goals and three assists.
“But what is interesting about Yusuf is his pre-assists, the assist before the actual assist, he had about 10 of them because he counter pressed a lot when we lost the ball, and he intercepted a lot of balls when we were defending, so for me, that makes him very interesting in the midfield.”
Maart’s performance at Sekhukhune in the last two seasons also earned him several Bafana Bafana call-ups and the 26-year-old is now a regular member of Hugo Broos’ set-up.
“He has the right mentality to be a top midfielder, and he is very athletic, and he is versatile in his positions so he can play as a number 10, 8, 6, so his positional versatility will always make him a top midfielder and we have no doubt that he will just go there and shine,” added Senong.
“Maart is a student of the game; he is a coachable player, someone who always wants to improve himself, so I don’t see such a player failing to adapt to any environment.”
The former Orlando Pirates midfielder will have to fight it out with the likes of newly-signed George Matlou, Siyethemba Sithebe, Phathutshedzo Nange and Cole Alexander for a starting berth at Chiefs.
“You look at the Chiefs set up at the moment, the coach Arthur Zwane, is very knowledgeable about how to help players transition from youth to performance football, so I am sure Arthur will also help him to transition from having played for Sekhukhune to Kaizer Chiefs.
“I’m confident Yusuf is going to adapt very quickly and help Chiefs to perform and develop and continue to grow as a midfielder,” concluded Senong, a former Bafana assistant coach and Lesotho head coach.
View images of Kaizer Chiefs players on the first day of pre-season!
