Posted in Features, News on Jul 30, 2026.
Kaizer Chiefs will begin their 57th season in the top- flight of South African football and their 31st in the Premier Soccer League era this Saturday, 1 August, when they face PSL newcomers and Motsepe Foundation Championship winners, Kruger United at the Mbombela Stadium. This will be Chiefs’ 1759th league game overall and 923rd PSL era league game.
Amakhosi will go in search of a 14th league title and 5th in the PSL era this season. Kruger United will be the third Mpumalanga-based team that Chiefs will face in the PSL era, after previous clashes against Mpumalanga Black Aces and TS Galaxy.
For Chiefs, they will be looking to win their opening game of the season for the third campaign in a row. They began the last season with wins on the road against Marumo Gallants and Stellenbosch. Amakhosi’s record in their opening game of a new PSL season has seen them win 17 games draw eight and lose five of their previous 30.
For the 21st time since 1996/97, Chiefs will begin a PSL season away from home. Over the previous 20 seasons, when starting on the road, Chiefs have won 12 games, drawn five and lost twice. The omens are positive for Amakhosi picking up points when starting on the road, as they have avoided defeat in 18 of the 20 previous league seasons when kicking off on their travels.
Chiefs’ biggest win on match-day 1 of a PSL campaign came on the road in 2012/13, a 6-0 win over AmaZulu. With Chiefs starting on the road, they will now have begun a league campaign on the road in five of the last six seasons. In this run, they only opened at home in 2023-24 a 0-0 draw against Chippa United.
For Chiefs, there is also history as Fernando Da Cruz becomes the second French-born coach to lead the Club, after Phillipe Troussier, who was at the helm in 1994 and won the MTN8 (BP Top8) title. Da Cruz is the first French-born coach to lead the club in the PSL era. The only other Chiefs coach with a French connection was Serbian-born French citizen, Paul Dolezar, who won back-to-back Rothmans titles with the club in 1997/98 and 1998/99.
