‘They must be prepared,’ Free Agents coach and owner warns Kaizer Chiefs

Free Agents coach and owner Olaitan Oladeru has warned Kaizer Chiefs to come prepared for a rude awakening if they take the ABC Motsepe League side for granted when they meet in their Nedbank Cup last 32 clash at FNB Stadium on Sunday.

“There's no warning [to Chiefs]. You have to respect the brand as one of the biggest in South Africa. But I must just say they must prepare,” Oladeru said in a prematch press conference on Thursday ahead of a match that will be biggest the Eersterust (Mamelodi) amateur side, founded in 2018, has faced.

Oladeru — a former footballer who played for a few Nigerian sides including Shooting Stars, Prime FC and Crown FC — said the idea behind forming his team and giving them the name “Free Agents” was to give players who have been clubless a platform to revive their careers.

“Two or three of our players have been signed by [first division] Casric Stars, which is a huge achievement for Free Agents. I played in the Nigerian league and I had a lot of setbacks, which is part of the reason we created this team.

“When you're out of the job as a footballer it's hard for you to get a job back if they don't have a place. It's one of the challenges that confront players the moment they're out of a contract. You get discouraged and you don't go to training and there's nowhere to go.

“That's the reason we formed this club. Everyone who doesn't have a contract could come to us and train freely [before they were promoted to South Africa's third tier in Gauteng]. It was just for the players to keep their heads up and it's been working very well for us.”

Shifting his focus to Sunday's game against a Chiefs who have struggled to beat low-tier sides in the Nedbank in recent years, Oladeru said playing at FNB Stadium alone will be a big deal and motivation for himself and the players.

“I would say when we formed the team one of the goals we had was to be at the top and try to achieve something better. Now the game against Kaizer Chiefs is like a dream come true.

“It's something we're looking forward to. I personally have never been there [FNB]. I've never been in the dressing room — I saw it on the television. Any team that found itself here, I think they have something. It's a very good feeling.

“We set our standard and feel we'll already be winners if we say we're going there with a mentality that says, 'We've nothing to lose, let's go there play'. We've set a goal and we're going to play with all our [hearts and] minds. Anything can happen.”

Milford FC, TS Galaxy, Baroka FC, Black Leopards, Cape Town All Stars, Richards Bay and University of Pretoria FC are some of the clubs who have beaten Chiefs in this competition when they were still campaigning in the lower leagues.