How George Lebese disappeared on the eve of signing with Turkish club

Former Kaizer Chiefs winger George Lebese disappeared for days on the eve of completing a multi-million Rands move to Turkey.

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And that’s according to his former agent Josiah Mphono who recently spoke to TK on TK Solutions TV on betrayals and money in football.

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In that interview, Mphono recalled how he convinced Lebese to leave his then agent Steven Kapeluschnik to join his agency in an attempt to go overseas.

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At the time, Lebese was in the final year of his contract with Chiefs, and Mphono had a concrete offer for him from Turkey which the player himself accepted.

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However, when Lebese and Mphono were supposed to go and put pen to paper with the said Turkish club, the left-footer switched his phone for days without communication.

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Furthermore, Mphono claims he had also organised a Puma sponsor for Lebese but the then Chiefs attacker signed and submitted that contract behind his back.

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This was in 2015, and Lebese would go on to sign a three-year deal with Chiefs before handing in a transfer request at the end of it to join Mamelodi Sundowns.

HOW GEORGE LEBESE SQUANDERED OPPORTUNITY TO PLAY IN EUROPE

“We had a deal with George from Turkey. We had a written offer before he extended his contract with Chiefs. He extended with Chiefs, and thereafter he left for Sundowns,” Mphono said.

“I spoke to George, I presented and he liked the idea and then I prepared the mandate, and he said, ‘let me get my mandate from Steven to see if it has expired.

“It had expired two years ago, but they were still working together. He signed my mandate and the guys I work with from Turkey. All I do, is to make a phone call and send them your stuff. In the meantime, here is a Puma sponsor.

“After that, I went to the Village to meet Abdul to say, ‘here’s my mandate before he can sign a new contract as well as the Puma contract’. Abdul said, ‘fine, I will show it to the management’,” he said.

“The Turkish guys sent an offer, and George rejected it and the money was little. So, we kept searching in different countries… Netherlands, Turkey… and the Turkish offer came back with better numbers – three years, home allowance, car allowance, net… It was good.

“He agreed that he will sign it, and he even gave me a copy of his passport. I then took his contract with Chiefs and showed it to our lawyer, and they said it was expiring soon. It had an option to renew but that option wasn’t that binding.

“We are agreed that all is good, we are leaving for Turkey on Sunday to sign. We did everything, we booked the flights, accommodation, and I sent him tickets and said, ‘I will pick you up on Sunday morning, and I will leave my car at the airport etc.

“On Saturday, I wanted to call him to prepare him for Sunday morning that I’m still going to pick him up, and I couldn’t get hold of him.”

“I tried to call him many times that day because the Turkish guys were also calling me, but I couldn’t get hold of him, and everything was ready, the club, and contract. All he needed to do was to sign.

“I didn’t get hold of him on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and on Tuesday, I read on the Chiefs Twitter account that he had extended his contract with them.

“And they were playing a Soweto derby (that following weekend), and suddenly, he’s wearing his Puma boots yet I’m still waiting for him to bring the copy of the Puma contract back to me so that I can send it to the Puma guys.

“Here’s this guy at the Soweto derby, playing with black Puma soccer boots, and I then called Puma, and they said, ‘he gave us the copy of the contract and we gave him the products’, and I was like, ‘how is that even possible?’