Lentjies negotiating with Chippa after Maritzburg decides not to renew his contract

Maritzburg United will not renew the contract of star forward Kurt Lentjies‚ with the player negotiating with Chippa United‚ the KwaZulu-Natal club have revealed.

United chairman Farook Kadodia confirmed to TimesLIVE on Thursday that Lentjies will not extend his contract – which expires at the end of this month – despite having an option to renew for a year‚ after four seasons at the KwaZulu-Natal club.

“I’m meeting him tomorrow (on Friday)‚” Kadodia said.

“We had a very open arrangement that there was supposed to be an option to renew for a year‚ but both parties must be happy.

“If one party is not happy then obviously we will wish the party concerned the right way.

“I believe he is negotiating with Chippa United.

"He intends going there.

"But officially I can only do that (confirm Lentjies’s departure) after tomorrow’s meeting.

“He told me that he wants to go back to Cape Town eventually‚ and we didn’t want to stand in his way.

“He did not have options at clubs in Cape Town‚ and Chippa (in the Eastern Cape) was at least closer.”

Star attacking midfielder Lentjies has played 28‚ 26‚ and 26 games out of 30 for Maritzburg in the past three seasons.

The club’s official reasoning for releasing the player might be that 32-year-old Lentjies wants a change in his career‚ however TimesLIVE is informed that his release is at least partly a decision of new head coach Fadlu Davids.

Davids‚ appointed this week after being United’s caretaker in two stints last season‚ is believed to want team players in his squad‚ with Lentjies not entirely fitting that bill.

- TimesLIVE