Kaizer Chiefs defender Inacio Miguel revealed he first met and played against Thabo Cele during their time in Portugal and contacted the midfielder before he joined Amakhosi.
Cele spent five years in Portugal after joining Real SC from the KZN Academy and went on to sign for Benfica B and later, LigaPro side Cova Piedade.
The last game which they met was December 2018, with Miguel featuring in defence with Braga in the same squad as Luther Singh, while Cele was part of the Piedade squad who won 2-1 on the day.
Cele has been a major addition to the squad since his arrival, offering Chiefs a new dimension, with 357 accurate passes with a 90% success rate in his seven games so far, 10 key passes in the final third, primarily featuring as a deep-lying playmaker.
“One of his biggest qualities, he played in Europe also. Played against each other, I know him… when I was in Braga he was in Benfica, we played and I met him then, we spoke at the time,” Miguel told iDiski Times when asked about what he’s brought to Chiefs.
“Even before he came here, I had a conversation with him, trying to make him know… he knows of course he’s a South African, but make it known it’s a big decision and good decision to come here.
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“He offers a lot of calmness like you said, it doesn’t mean we didn’t have it before. But it’s different, he has different skillset to [Samkelo] Zwane and Yusuf [Maart] for example.
“There’s moments when you need to cool down the game and he’s a big player to cool the game down during these transitions.”
Chiefs will be aiming to use the FIFA international break to prepare for their upcoming challenges with Golden Arrows, TS Galaxy on the horizon in the league and the Nedbank Cup semi-final against Mamelodi Sundowns.
