Chiefs had interest in signing Evans Rusike

Cape Town - SuperSport United Chief Executive Officer Stan Matthews says Kaizer Chiefs expressed interest in signing Evans Rusike but later withdrew.

Rusike is a highly prized asset in South African football as he has the proven ability to score goals as he showed at Maritzburg United.

Last season the 28-year-old scored five Premiership goals for United in 24 matches and is expected to do even better in 2019/20 should he stay as expected.

Matthews told: "We've had interest at various times in Rusike. At one-point Chiefs were interested and then Bobby said they were longer interested, so that was off the table.

"I think Sundowns were potentially interested if he was a local and as potentially part of what they would see as a player swap for a couple of players of theirs that we were interested in. But for us, Evans is a mainstay player, a record signing for us. Evans is not up for sale to any club at the moment.

"The Chiefs interest was more towards the end of last season. I think since they went on a global expansion, they might have filled those foreign spots.

"But you know Bobby called and expressed interest. We informed Rusike's agent of the interest, but that interest is gone and dead and there's nothing on the table at all. But we are definitely not looking to sell Evans."