09 January 2019, by: Ben Dlamini

The Biggest January Transfers In The PSL

With ‘silly season’ well underway, plenty of speculation is expected to do its rounds before the end of the transfer window on Friday, January 31. Instead of looking at what could be, we’ve decided to take a look at some of the biggest deals that has happened in January in recent years.

Since joining Mamelodi Sundowns in 2018 from Bolivian side, Bolivar, Gaston Sirino has been one of the standout players for the Tshwane-based giants, while many would argue that the South American is currently the Absa Premiership’s best player – but that’s a debate for another day. Sirino has been instrumental in Sundowns’ back-to-back league titles, while the 28-year-old Uruguayan also picked up his first domestic trophy with the club this season, scoring five goals and assisting his teammates twice in their superb Telkom Knockout triumph. It didn’t seem a major deal at the time, but Sirino’s move to Sundowns has to go down as one of the biggest transfers to happen in January – in recent times, at least.

Mamelodi Sundowns haven’t always got it right when it comes to South American talent with Emiliano Tade failing to live up to expectations after completing a reported R8-million transfer switch from AmaZulu in January last year. The Argentinian wizard was definitely a hit in the first half of last season with Usuthu, but since his downfall, Tade has found the going tough, announcing his retirement from professional football after a series of injuries which also saw him fail to get any sort of minutes under coach Pitso Mosimane this season. Tade has returned to New Zealand with his family where he will focus on life away from the beautiful game.

Perhaps another January departure which put a smile on many South African fans’ faces, apart from Sundowns supports, of course, was the transfer of Keagan Dolly to French club, Montpellier. Transferring for a fee of around R27-million Rand makes this one of the biggest deals to happen in the January window, and after Dolly had won three trophies with Masandawana, including the club’s first-ever CAF Champions League in 2016, it was certainly the time to move on and take his career to the next level. Being only 26-years-old with a bright future still ahead of him, perhaps the left-footed trickster could make another move in his football journey after not getting the amount of game time he had hoped for in France. And who knows, maybe another January move could be on the cards?

Another member of the rock-solid Kaizer Chiefs defence this season has been Reeve Frosler. Just like his teammate, Akpeyi, Frosler moved to the Glamour Boys on deadline day last year and failed to hit the ground running from the get-go. But once the dust settled, the 21-year-old South African stamped his authority in the first team and has since gone on to become one of the best full-backs in the country, which has seen him earn multiple call-ups to the Bafana Bafana national team. Chiefs have been accused of doing shrewd business in the transfer market in recent years, but snatching Frosler from Bidvest Wits definitely has to go down as one of the club’s best buys over the last couple of seasons.

It’s always great to see South African players taking that extra leap of faith in making the move abroad, and January 2016 saw Kermit Erasmus do just that, moving to Rennes in France after a successful spell at Orlando Pirates. In fact, three years later, ‘Romeo’ returned from overseas and completed another January move, this time, coming back home, signing for Cape Town City last year. Erasmus has been a key figure in City’s attack, and at the age of 29, he’s deep into his prime years and is more than capable of solving the goalscoring crisis occurring in the Bafana Bafana national team.

Daniel Akpeyi’s transfer from Chippa United to Kaizer Chiefs last season, at the time, seemed very questionable and odd considering the other quality goalkeepers in the Absa Premiership that Amakhosi could have targeted instead. With Itumeleng Khune plagued with injuries, Chiefs needed somebody to step in and make that position theirs. After a rocky start, Akpeyi slowly started to win the fans over and has now cemented the number one spot ahead of Khune, keeping clean sheets for fun this season as Ernst Middendorp’s men find themselves in a title race, much due to the form of the Nigerian shot-stopper. Akpeyi was also presented with the September/October Absa Premiership Player of the Month award this term.

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