Kaizer Chiefs fought off the challenge of Turkish club Trabanzpor and announced the addition of Ghanaian junior international defender Jonathan Quartey to its ranks, in a deal which sees the 19-year-old central defender put pen to paper in a four-year deal with Chiefs.

Quartey who had been on trial with The Amakhosi all of last week, impressed coach Muhsin Ertugral during his week long trial, which included him featuring in two friendly matches for The Amakhosi. Part of Quartey’s trial saw the young highly competitive and combatitive defender feature for Chiefs during their penalty shoot out Telkom Charity Cup loss to arch rivals Orlando Pirates. Quartey had a sound game in defense as he kept the likes of and Bennett Chenene at bay.

Born in Accra on the 15th April 1988, Quartey was part of the Ghanaian U-17 team that qualified for the 2006 FIFA U-17 World Cup played in Peru. Quartey caught the attention of a number of foreign scouts with his impressive defensive displays in all three of the young Black Stars games in South America.

He joins Chiefs from Ghanaian Premier League Club, International Allies, although he did spend the past season on loan to another Ghanaian team Ashanti Goldfields who are located in Obuasi in Central Ghana.

Quartey signing to strengthen team

Amakhosi team manager Bobby Motaung has revealed that Quartey has impressed the Kaizer Chiefs technical team with his attitude on and off field.

“Jonathan impressed us with his over all work rate and commitment during his week long trial and that resulted in us making him an offer to become part of the Kaizer Chiefs family.”

Chiefs coach Muhsin Ertugral believes that Quartey possess the credentials to go a long way and help Chiefs achieve success in both the long and short term.

“Jonathan has a very accomplished background as he has played for a number of the Ghanaian junior national teams. He had a good season last year in the Ghana Premier League, which is a very physically demanding place to play. He was impressive in the two games that he played for us during the trial period; I do feel that his acquisition coupled with that of Moketi Tsotetsi has helped strengthened us in defense."

Good co-operation

The president of the International Allies Football Club Mr. Omar El – Eter accompanied by the club CEO Mr. Deleli Eric Senaye, flew from Ghana to South Africa and were in Johannesburg on Tuesday to conclude the deal which Saw Jonathan Quartey become a Chiefs player.

El – Eter was pleased with the smooth handling of negotiations between the two clubs and is looking forward to dealing with The Amakhosi in the future, as he added, “as a club we were happy with the way the deal went through with Chiefs and this transfer will have helped strengthened relations between our clubs”.

Chiefs team manager Bobby Motaung was equally complimentary of Mr. Eter and Senaye when he said “we have dealt with many teams in transfer matters over the years, I must say that dealing with the International Allies Club was a pleasures and we looking forward towards conducting further business with them in the future.