Gustav Páez: the journeyman from Venezuela

Google Gustavo Páez and you'll be gobsmacked by the results.

On screen pops up Gustavo Páez - Apostle. Evangelist. Prophet.

He crisscrosses the length and breadth of South America, his native Colombia, Honduras and even does California in Donald Trump land, performing 'miracles'.

He holds people's feet in prayer. The weak get stronger once Páez has placed his hands on them and prayed in tongues.

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The pastor and founder of the Central Church of Praise Oasis apparently prophesied an earthquake that struck Ecuador nine days before it happened! Strong competition for TB Joshua, no?

Then there's another Gustavo Páez, the striker Kaizer Chiefs hope will wave his magic wand during the duration of his two and a half years he signed for the Naturena club.

The Chiefs frontline has been frailer than frail. Only two goals from Bernard Parker. The trio of Lewis Macha, Michelle Katsvairo and Edmore Chirambadare boast a contemptible solitary goal between them.

Edward Manqele and Siphelele Mthembu's contracts are in the process of being settled, their services now surplus.

Páez, the player not the preacher, has walked into a dire department.

Amakhosi faithful pray that the arrival of the 26-year-old, who will wear jersey number 28, will inspire a transmission of goals that will spark a vibration of celebration on the terraces.

Buoyed by the back-to-back victories before the Christmas and Africa Cup of Nations break, Amakhosi opted against doing business beyond Páez in the January transfer window.

But can the Venezuelan make all manner of 'miracles' akin to his religious Colombian namesake and rattle the net with regular impunity?

Free State Stars will provide a first test of Páez's capabilities when they visit Chiefs at FNB on Tuesday night. Kickoff is at 7.30pm.

The fans will want him to follow in the footsteps of Joseph Molingoana, who found the net on his Chiefs debut.

Páez's résumé, however, paints a picture of a man who is anything but prolific.

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It tells a tacit tale of a journeyman who will not add the new dimension the Chiefs attack is desperately crying out for: a direct striker who lurks around the box like a fox.

Viewing his videos on YouTube, Páez does little of that. He mostly ventures in from the sides. When he takes shots, some fly over the crossbar and succeed only to disturb the flight of the birds.

All things Paez are not all doom and gloom. There are some fine turn-and-shoot finishes, whose slo-mos are repeated over and over, clearly for emphasis that he is capable of bulging the net.

It is just that those moments are few and far between.

This is probably why Chiefs' coach Steve Komphela, after taking Páez through his paces for a better part of January, this week referred to him as "not the answer to our problems, but a solution. But he will help solve our lack of finishing." Huh? Isn't solution a synonym for answer? Komphela can't unSteve himself from his English.

Komphela is in his second season of a two-year contract with an option to renew. The cabinet remains barren. In his maiden season, the mentor from Kroonstad reached the MTN8 and Telkom Knockout finals, falling to Ajax Cape Town and Sundowns.

This season, only the Absa Premiership and Nedbank Cup trophies can salvage the season for the man who is under relentless pressure from the fans to deliver some silverware.

Satisfied in the belief that South American is not dissimilar to South African soccer, Komphela has expressed his hope that Paez "will not struggle to understand the sequence and the movement" of Chiefs.

But hope can be as hopeless as a penny with a hole in it, to paraphrase Dionne Farris. Someone who has seen Páez up close and personal is Jose Torrealba. They are homeboys and the duo played together for Deportivo Lara in the Venezuelan Primera Division.

A top striker during his days at Mamelodi Sundowns, but a pale shadow of himself when he transferred to Chiefs in his twilight, Torrealba declared his public approval of his countryman on the Chiefs website.

"Gustavo is a good striker. He's quick and more mature than when I played with him in 2013. He played in several countries. Experiencing such a variety of cultures is very important. I am sure he will do well at Chiefs."

block_quotes_start We are appealing to our supporters that he's going to score, and he's going to score a lot of goals, we'd assume - and I hope it happens fast enough block_quotes_end

Those countries are SPIVS: Slovenia, Peru, Italy, Venezuela and Spain. Lower leagues in Spain (Segunda D) and Italy (Serie B).

Chiefs are not looking for a cultural expert. They want a goalscorer. A live-wire one at that. Everyone associated with the club knows they will never find another Marks "Go Man Go" Maponyane, Fani "Didiza" Madida, Collins "Ntofontofo" Mbesuma or Knowledge "Smiling Assassin" Mbesuma.

Time will tell whether the acquisition of Páez was a smart bit of business on their part. Goalkeepers around the country are not shaking in their boots seeing that Páez is said to have scored 11 goals in 11 years. "I will try to do my best," Paez told journalists on Thursday.

"We are appealing to our supporters that he's going to score, and he's going to score a lot of goals, we'd assume - and I hope it happens fast enough," said Komphela. "But we don't want to put him under too much pressure that he ends up freezing. So what I'm saying is give him time."

And then there was this gem from Komphela: "If pressure was language, it should be French to him and he speaks Spanish."

We will assume that this is gobbledygook and we know that assumption is the mother of all f-words. We assume that if the soccer Gustavo struggles to score, he can call on Gustavo the apostle, evangelist and prophet for prayer to be the solution.

These are the teams that Paez has played for:

• 2006-08: Academia Emerietense

• 2009: Alianza Lima (Peru)

• 2010: Interblock Ljubljana (Slovenia)

• 2010: Union Quinto (Italy)

• 2011-13: Mallorca B (Spain)

• 2013: Deportivo Lara (Venezuela)

• 2013-14: Deprtivo La Guaira (Venezuela)

• 2014: Messina (Italy)

• 2014-15: Zamora (Venezuela)

• 2016: Estudiantes de Merida (Venezuela)

bbk@sundaytimes.co.za