Posted in News on Feb 20, 2006.
Rowen played his first game for Chiefs back in August 2002 when Chiefs beat Tembisa Classic 2-1, from than he has grown in stature at the club and it was his outstanding performances in the 2003 – 2004 season which prompted Brian Baloyi a long servant of Chiefs to leave. The boy from Benoni presently stands on 98 appearances for Chiefs but is confident of reaching his century by the end of the week “I really was not aware of this milestone reaching it will mean a lot to me,” said Rowen.
When questioned about the significance of reaching a hundred games, taking into account that all the games he has played so far barring one he has played the full ninety minutes. Rowen has only ever once been substituted and that was when Chiefs drew with Bloemfontein Celtic away from home earlier in the season, Rowen picked up an injury in the first half and left the game at half time. This means that he has played an astonishing 8875 minutes for Chiefs, should Rowen play against Sundowns and Cosmos he will pass having stood in goal for more than 9000 minutes.
The record number of appearances for a goalkeeper at Chiefs is Brian Baloyi who stood in goal for a record 347 matches between 1992 and July 2004, which is the second highest number of appearances for a Chiefs player. Rowen though is concentrating on not his next hundred but his next outing “if I want to play 500 games for Chiefs I need to play well in every game at the moment I am not thinking further than Sundowns on Wednesday evening” added Fernandez.
Another player close to making 100 starts for Chiefs is veteran midfielder Shoes Moshoeu, who currently stands on 99 starts for the Amakhosi. Shoes though did pass the hundred-appearance mark two seasons ago having also made 31 appearances for Chiefs as a substitute.
