Kaizer Chiefs Banking on Flavio Silva to End Five-Year Striker Drought

The arrival of Flavio Silva at Kaizer Chiefs has reignited hopes that the Soweto giants can finally break their long-standing struggle for a reliable double-figure goalscorer in the DStv Premiership. The signing brings attention to a problem that has plagued Chiefs for half a decade—failing to produce a league striker who reaches double digits in goals.

Since Samir Nurkovic’s 13-goal haul during the 2019/20 season, which nearly delivered the league title, Chiefs have not had a single player breach the 10-goal mark in a league campaign. The decline in scoring prowess has been noticeable and concerning for one of South Africa’s most successful clubs.

Last season, the team’s leading scorers, Wandile Duba and Glody Makabi Lilepo, managed just five goals each. The year before, it was even more scattered, with Ashley Du Preez, Ranga Chivaviro, Christian Saile Basomboli, and Pule Mmodi all stuck on four goals each. Bonfils-Caleb Bimenyimana led the charts with seven in the 2022/23 season, while Keagan Dolly and Lebogang Manyama managed eight goals apiece in the two seasons before that.

In fact, outside of Nurkovic’s standout 2019/20 campaign, no Chiefs player has scored more than eight league goals in a single season over the past decade. The situation has at times been so dire that even defensive midfielder Willard Katsande finished as the club’s top league scorer with seven goals in the 2015/16 season.

Now, Flavio Silva has been handed the responsibility to change that narrative. The 29-year-old Guinea Bissau-born striker arrives at Naturena with a mixed goal-scoring record. While his stint in Portugal’s second division produced just 17 goals over eight years, and a move to Luxembourg yielded no goals, Silva found form in Indonesia’s Liga 1.

At Persik Kediri, Silva enjoyed a prolific 2022/23 season, netting 23 goals, followed by nine goals in 33 appearances last season for Persebaya Surabaya. Although Indonesia’s top-flight league doesn’t rank among Asia’s top ten domestic competitions, Chiefs will hope that his physical presence and recent form can translate into success in the South African top-flight.

The challenge for Silva will be to adapt quickly to the physicality and pace of the DStv Premiership, a league where previous big-name arrivals have struggled to hit the ground running. Chiefs supporters will be hoping that he can become the first striker since Bernard Parker in 2013/14, and Knowledge Musona before him in 2010/11, to score double figures consistently.

With a new era underway at Naturena, the pressure will be on Silva to deliver goals and help Chiefs reclaim their place among South Africa’s football elite.