"I Feel Like I Don't Belong to the Kaizer Chiefs Badge": Legend Itumeleng Khune

• The long goodbye for Itumeleng Khune at Kaizer Chiefs is reaching its conclusion judging by the noise in the media
• Another goalkeeping great, former Umtata Bush Bucks shot-stopper Nigel Dixon reckons that the 35-year-old Khune must retire
• He has become an outcast at the Amakhosi, making only one appearance in the whole of last season

Itumeleng Khune has made a stark revelation regarding his part in the decay of Kaizer Chiefs' heritage.

The Amakhosi, the once-undisputed cup kings of South Africa, have not won silverware since 2015, the longest barren run since the club was established by Kaizer Motaung in the 1970s.

Speaking to IOL ahead of the Soweto Derby against Orlando Pirates on Saturday, Khune said:

“We accept as players that we’ve disappointed the fans. We have disappointed the chairman. We’ve disappointed everyone who has been supporting the club for the past seven years (because) we haven’t won any silverware. We feel bad to be representing the club (without winning silverware). Having been here for so long, I’m not used to that as well.

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"Since I was promoted in 2004, I’ve been winning trophies. The fact that for the past seven years, I haven’t won any (trophies), I feel I don’t belong to the badge. That I don’t belong to the club, (it's) because Kaizer Chiefs is not a club that goes years without winning any silverware."

This came amid opinions from far and wide that 35-year-old must either move on from the Amakhosi or seriously consider retiring. The last person to say that was Umtata Bush Bucks' legendary goalkeeper Nigel Dixon. Like Khune, Dixon was a one-club-man, playing for the Eastern Cape club his entire career.

Dixon did not mince his words Speaking to Kick Off in an exclusive interview, saying that the former Bafana Bafana shot-stopper must be brutal in his introspection in the winter of his career.

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In January 2022, Khune made it clear that he was not going to hang up his gloves and boots, saying that he would only do so when Italian stalwart Gianluigi Buffon would do so. The 45-year-old Buffon returned to his boyhood club Parma in 2021, which is currently campaigning in Italy's Serie B.

Shongwe has realistic words for Khune

Kaizer Chiefs legend and current outcast Itumeleng Khune has been told to either leave the club or head into coaching.

As reported by Sports Brief, the 35-year-old goalkeeper, whose Bafana Bafana days are also long behind him and unlikely to return, has been on the periphery at the Amakhosi. He only made one appearance last season for the team.

Former Chiefs goalkeeper William Shongwe believes Khune needs to call it a day at the club where he made his name in the mid-to-late 2000s.