Mashamaite will wear the number 4 on his back in the 2011/2012 campaign, while Ritchie inherits the number 13 from Valery Nahayo, who left Chiefs in the off season to pursue his career in Belgium. Lawler and Majoro have been handed the number 18 and 20 jersey’s respectively.

Mashamaite, who joined Chiefs from BIDVest Wits in the off season, has no qualms with wearing the number 4 shirt: “At Wits I wore the number 23 shirt. When I was younger I played for the SA Students team. There I wore number 4,” said Mashamaite.

The lanky South Africa international believes that his new squad number could well be his lucky charm. “I am not sure if you can call it a superstition but I do believe in numbers and the number 4 is a good number.

"When I was at Wits the number 23 was given to me and the same here with number 4. I did not select the number, it was handed to me. It’s a good thing from club to club that I change my number. The funny thing is that for Bafana Bafana I wear the number 13.”

The player who will be donning the number 13 for Chiefs in the coming season, another of the new boys Keegan Ritchie, is hoping that a number synonymous in superstitious culture with bad luck will in fact have the opposite effect for him.

He said: “When I was being allocated a number I had a choice between number 13 and 24 and I chose 13, so I guess that answers the question about whether I am superstitious or not.”

Ritchie is also hopeful that wearing the number 13 will have the same end result for him that it did for its two previous occupants, David Obua (who was with the club from 2005 to 2008) and Valery Nahayo (who was with Chiefs from 2008 until his departure last month).

Both excelled at the Amakhosi before departing for European clubs. Speaking about this, Ritchie said: “Hopefully I can do just as well as David and Valery did for Chiefs and perhaps duplicate their success. I am pleased to have been handed a number that has a successful history behind it.”