When Siyabonga Nkosi’s 4th minute strike against Golden Arrows in the SAA Supa8 Cup this past weekend beat Davies Phiri and bulged the Arrows net to set Chiefs on their way to a two nil victory, little did he know that he had created a piece of his own history. Nkosi’s goal against Arrows meant that he joined a select group of players to have scored in their first official game for The Amakhosi, with Nkosi scoring against Arrows he has also ensure that another unique set by debutants is been maintained.

Since Collins Mbesuma scored a sixteenth minute goal on the 6th March in 2004, Chiefs have had a debutant score in their first game for the past four seasons, Nkosi’s goal meant he did not disappoint the statisticians and continued this unique tradition for the club. Mbesuma’s debut goal against Black Leopards in 2003 – 2004 was followed up, in the 2004 – 2005 season by his Zambian compatriot Songwe Chalwe who also scored on debut in a 3-0 Chiefs victory over Jomo Cosmos in January 2005.

Most recently Louis Agyemang found the back of the net just a minute into his Chiefs career against Bloemfontein Celtic in an SAA Supa8 ¼ Final game in August 2005, Agyemang’s early strike was not enough to help Chiefs as they ended up losing the game. Siyabonga Nkosi speaking after Chiefs victory over Arrows, a game where in he was named as the ‘man of the match’ said, “it was important for me to have scored against Arrows, this goal will go along way towards helping me settle in at Chiefs”.

A gleaming Nkosi was unaware that he had joined this select group of players but was most pleased to have made a bit of history on Saturday “like I said getting this goal means a lot for me and for my confidence and from a personal view point it can only help me”. Nkosi who earlier in the month missed a penalty in a friendly game against Swallows says that miss did play on his mind but he kept it away from affecting his game.

Nkosi added “I knew that if I got a goal early on in my career at Chiefs then a lot of things would fall into place. How ironic it is though that a year after winning a ‘man of the match’ award man against Chiefs - I win one for the team I have loved my entire life”.

For the next couple of days Nkosi will turn his focus away from club football to the national team, as he is one of four Chiefs players called up by Pitso Mosimane for Bafana Bafana’s game against Namibia on Wednesday evening. Other interesting debutant goal scorers for The Amakhosi down the years include Siyabonga Nomvete, who incidentally injured himself while scoring on his debut against Bloemfontein Celtic during the 1998 – 1999 season.

At the start of the following season Jabu Pule The Amakhosi’s ‘enfant terrible’ Jabu Pule had his name flashing in lights as he scored on his official debut for The Amakhosi in August 1999. When Chiefs triumphed on the opening day of the season against Amazulu by four goals to one at the Johannesburg Athletics Stadium.

We will close off with an interesting fact regarding Collins Mbesuma as he could have set up some kind of a historical mark by scoring a goal on his debut against Black Leopards in March 2004.

That was when he began his Chiefs career and he ended it by scoring a goal in his last match for Chiefs against Bloemfontein Celtic in May 2005 when he completed his brace to hand Chiefs a 2-0 victory and the 2004 – 2005 PSL title.