Orlando Pirates were excited about Gilberto’s arrival before the start of the current season, but the Angolan international failed to match the hype.
The R10 million winger returned to where he came from – Petro de Lunda – five months after joining the Soweto giants. Now it’s reported that the club and player are keen to make the loan move permanent, ending a messy, short-lived marriage.
“Word reaching Phakaaathi is that the powers that be at Orlando Pirates are open to selling Gilberto,” the Citizen confirmed.
“The attacker still has two years left on his current contract, and Petro is reportedly interested in making the deal to bring him back to the Girabola league a permanent one.”
PSL race back on
Jose Riveiro’s side flipped the script when they beat Mamelodi Sundowns last Sunday, closing the gap on the reigning champions, who lie fifteen points ahead. Orlando Pirates have four games in hand.
The Spanish boss was delighted after the result, saying, “Every point is important in a league where it seems there’s one team who’s going to finish close to 80 points, probably by the end of the season,” said Riveiro
“So obviously if you want to compete with them, when you look at the schedule, you cannot say to yourself, ‘Okay, here if we get a point, it’s fine’, or even today playing against them, ‘If we get a point, it’s going to be alright’, it’s not.
“You have to always fight for the maximum points, and again, it’s a pity that we’re not arriving in this game – obviously we’re going into the space of the ‘ifs’, but still we have four games more to play than them,” the Orlando Pirates manager explained.
“It would have been nice to have [had] those games played already, come here and maybe, I don’t know, even if we are six or seven points behind them and even three points, just that little advantage would give the game a different dimension, I’m sure.”
Can Orlando Pirates catch Sundowns?
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