Kaizer Chiefs' decision to bring Ranga Chivaviro on board as their new hope for goals was influenced by the options available in the domestic transfer market.
Chivaviro has agreed to a two year with an option of another year at Chiefs.
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For a 30-year-old, who has spent most of his career struggling in the first division, the move to Chiefs justifies why 'you should never give up on your dreams regardless of the circumstances'.
It was 10 years ago that Chivaviro arrived at Witbank Spurs at a time when the club's frontline was led by Ralph Matema and featuring a young Innocent Maela at the back.
Chivaviro had a single goal in his first season (2013/14) and then improved to five in his second but no goals to his name halfway through the third season he packed up and left for Cape Town All Stars where he scored thrice.
Next stop was FC Cape Town (Ubuntu Cape Town) where he scored five in his first year before blossoming to 11 in his second as Peter Shalulile finished as the first division top scorer with 15.
Chivaviro then got his top league break with Baroka at the start of the 2018/19 season but had one goal in 19 appearances before moving to TS Sporting where he scored once while on loan.
From there he returned and scored once for Baroka and after almost a year without a club went to play for KF Trepca 89 in Kosovo for five months before returning to score twice for Venda FC in the first division in the 2021/22 season.
Then at the start of last season, Chivaviro joined Marumo where he started off slow but ultimately scored 17 goals in 30 appearances across all competitions.
Chivaviro has put in the mileage in the first division and was the only striker on double figures available on the market for Chiefs.
The rest of the top scorers last were out of reach for AmaKhosi.
Joint top scorer Peter Shalulile is a top earner at Mamelodi Sundowns and Chiefs had no chance of even attempting to lure him from winning trophies at Chloorkop to enduring the frustration of playing in hope at Naturena.
With Khanyisa Mayo – who also scored 12 league goals like Shalulile – it could have made sense for Chiefs to go for him but then they would have had to dig deep into their pockets to lure him from Cape Town City.
City activated the option of a further two years on Mayo's contract during the course of the past season before then tying him down to a fresh three-year extension.
This now gives City boss John Comitis all the comforts he needs in knowing that his top scorer cannot be tempted away without a huge transfer fee that will stretch over R20 million on the table.
With Chiefs not keen on paying big money in transfers the Mayo option was a non-starter.
Orlando Pirates star man Monnapule Saleng – who had 11 goals – wasn't even discussed at Naturena as he remains the best players in their rivals' dressing room.
Saleng is not even a number nine despite the number of goals that he scored last term.
The next attacker on double numbers was Bradley Grobler who also had 10 like Chivaviro.
Grobler – who turns 36 on his next birthday – is a proper centre forward with goals in his game and his goals have carried SuperSport United through the decade that he has spent at the club.
At his age, he would have only been a short-term solution but even so Chiefs would still have had to pay a hefty transfer which wouldn't have been what they want.
The last men on double figures last season was Etiosa Ighodaro who did the job for Chippa United.
However, the challenge is that he was only on loan at Chippa and has a contract with Sundowns.
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