Kaizer Chiefs will jet out of the country this week in preparation for the upcoming 2024-25 Premier Soccer League season. Their pre-season tour to the Republic of Türkiye, is set to commence from Thursday.

Players and members of the technical team will spend almost three weeks in the country that straddles both Europe and Asia, where they are expected to train and play friendly matches against some top Turkish opposition.

The trip is the Glamour Boys’ first tour outside of the country in 21 years. The most previous pre-season trip outside of South Africa was in South Korea where the team spent almost one month in camp. This trip was also included participation in the Peace Cup where they faced some top teams including Olympique Lyon of France, Turkish side, Besiktas, and host club, Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma. The players got a chance to utilise some of the 2002 FIFA World Cup facilities.

“The most crucial aspect of a pre-season camp is to make sure that the team is building team unity and overall mental readiness for the season ahead. These are vital as every top team needs to work together to build its internal strength in order to be prepared for the challenges ahead,” says Sporting Director, Kaizer Motaung Jr. “More specifically for us, with a new incoming coaching structure, it helps for the new coaching team to have the squad away from their normal environment in order to assess what work must be done and how they need to work going forward together.

“We are looking forward to a very productive preparation process, and we hope the team will be able to focus on the job at hand as we gear towards starting the season very strongly,” he adds.

Kaizer Chiefs have a very storied history with Türkiye and have sold a number of players to Turkish Clubs over the years. Amongst the most notable movers from Chiefs to the Super Lig were John ‘Shoes’ Moshoeu, Fani Madida, Donald ‘Ace’ Khuse, Steve Komphela, Pollen ‘Trompies’ Ndlanya and, more recently, Siphiwe ‘Shabba’ Tshabalala.

“We are thankful that we are able to realise our dream of preparing the team overseas. This gives us an opportunity to promote the Kaizer Chiefs brand outside of the borders of South Africa. We are looking forward to a successful tour and hope it will lead us to winning, as we did when we came back from Korea in 2003,” says Marketing and Commercial Director, Jessica Motaung.

The team will be based in the cities of Izmit and Istanbul during their tour of Türkiye, before returning to South Africa to start the new DStv Premiership season.