Kaizer Chiefs captain Cyril Nzama had to put his celebrations for what would have been his 200th game for The Amakhosi against Golden Arrows at the start of the month on ice, after he had to miss the game due to an injury he picked up a week before in a game against Moroka Swallows.

Nzama did recover sufficiently enough to travel with the national team to Zambia, and starred in defence as he helped South Africa register their first victory over Zambia away from home this past weekend. The Chiefs captain will hopefully get the opportunity to reach his double century of appearances for The Amakhosi, when they face defending league champions Sundowns on Saturday.

Kaizerchiefs.com sat the Chiefs captain down after training on Tuesday and spoke to him about his memories over the past five seasons as well as his most memorable moments playing against Sundowns in this time.

KC.COM: Cyril you missed out on the opportunity of reaching 200 hundred appearances for Chiefs through injury, you will hopefully get the chance against Sundowns on Saturday. Would you have preferred to have reached the milestone against Golden Arrows a week ago instead?


CN: To me it really does not matter, it was frustrating having to sit out the Golden Arrows game. In football this kind of thing happens and one must live with injuries, suspensions etc. The important thing is that I am fit and ready for Sundowns.

I have overcome my injury and I am looking forward to Saturday’s game, as I have always enjoyed playing against The Brazilians. Especially these days as they are the glamour team with all the riches and are also the defending Champions and every one wants to claim the scalp of the champions including us.

KC.COM: Looking back over the past five years, from the time you made your debut for Chiefs what have been some of the more memorable moments and some that you would prefer not to dwell much upon?


CN: Winning the league in 2003 – 2004 and again in 2004 – 2005 although I missed the run in 2004 - 2005 due to injury when we successfully defended our title, I still do think that winning the Championship back to back must rank as some of the finer moments of being at Chiefs. Also winning the 2001 African Cup Winners Cup or Mandela Cup must be something that I would also think of. Winning a continental title is always tough and it is an achievement that will remain in the memory bank.

The times I would like to forget possibly losing 3-0 to Pirates in a league game at the FNB Stadium in December 2001, maybe also perhaps not winning a third league title last season. Overall I do feel that thus far in my Chiefs career I have had more happy times than sad ones, winning eight trophies in five years is really something to be happy about.

KC.COM: Over all of this time I am sure you have had some good times playing against Sundowns. Run us through some of them?


CN: The one that ranks the highest is possibly the goal I scored against them in the last minute of the 2001 BP Top Final, for many reasons starting with the fact that it was my first major cup final. As well as being my first goal for Chiefs and also it looked as though we were going to lose the game, but we did not give up and got the equalizer and took the game to extra time.

Extra time did not separate us and I scored the winning penalty in the shoot out which won us the Top Eight trophy, which happened to be my first major title as a professional player. Then there was a league game that we played against them in the 2001 – 2002 season, to be precise it was on the 17th April 2002 and I happened to score against them although we drew the game. As a defender you remember every goal you score because of the mere fact that they do not come very often and when they do, you make every one think about them forever and ever.

KC.COM: As you approach your 200th game for Chiefs, when ever some one mentions the name Mamelodi Sundowns what springs to mind?




CN: If I must say so then it has to be the 5th February 2005 when we played against them in a league game and won 4-3, the amazing aspect of that game is the fact that we played the entire second half with only ten men. Even more spectacular was the fact that we scored two goals with being one man down. In football terms that is a real mean feat and that victory really meant a lot to the team at the time. It demonstrated to all the sceptics and the doubters that we were a strong group of guys, that no matter what situation we may be in, we could swim out of it together.

KC.COM: Cyril our final question to you today is, once you pass the 200 mark of appearances for Chiefs on Saturday what will be your next aim?


CN: I am thirty-two years old so I need to be realistic about this and say that I feel I could make it to 250 games for Chiefs through this season and the next and we will see what happens thereafter.