Amakhosi coach Muhsin Ertugral was pleasantly surprised on Thursday afternoon when his former Chairman Ozkan Sumer from his time as coach of Turk Cell Super Liga team Trabzonspor, turned up at the Chiefs village in Naturena to meet him.

Sumer and another Trabzonspor official Mesut Kabahasan, who are currently in South Africa on behalf of the Turkish Football Association, came out to the Kaizer Chiefs village in Naturena to meet Ertugral who coached the Turkish team in the 1996 – 1997 season while Sumer was at the head of the club at the time.

Sumer who is a board member of the Turkish Football association is a former Trabzonspor legend and achieved a lot of success with the club as a player, and after his playing days at the club were over, he held both the posts as coach and chairman of Trabzonspor. On Thursday he met with Chiefs Chairman Kaizer Motaung and was given a tour of The Amakhosi’s facilities at Naturena. Sumer and Kabahasan will be Ertugral’s guests at Chiefs Telkom Knockout Cup game on Saturday evening against Moroka Swallows.

Ertugral thanks to Sumer

Ertugral did not hide the fact that Sumer had played a major role in shaping the kind of coach he has become today, he continuously speaks to Sumer and takes advice from him on football and social issues.

As Ertugral said “Mr. Sumer has always been very good to me I was the Trabzonspor coach when he was in charge of the club, and just as I do with Mr. Motaung I had a an excellent working and general relationship with him”.

The Chiefs coach was further pleased by the fact that Mr. Sumer finally visited Naturena so that he could see first hand the work that Ertugral was doing, and he hopes to show him some of the sights of Johannesburg after Saturday evenings game.

Sumer plaudits for Ertugral

Sumer who is in South Africa to have a look at training facilities as well as the progress being made on stadiums for the 2010 Fifa World Cup, believes that in Ertugral Chiefs have a coach who will help mould a world class team.

Sumer added, “Muhsin is an excellent coach, a very intelligent man with a good sound knowledge of the game and he knows how to get the best out of his players”.

Sumer was equally impressed by the facilities in Naturena saying, “The purpose of my visit to South Africa is to have a look at training infrastructure and I must say that Chiefs have a centre of international football standards at Naturena”.