KickOff has gathered whispers of that super-rich Djibouti club AS Arta/Solar 7 is considering an audacious bid to sign Siphiwe Tshabalala ahead of their next campaign.
As champions of Djibouti, Arta Solar 7 will play in the 2022/23 CAF Champions League again seeking to go beyond the first round where they came stuck last year.
Sources that have constantly been in contact with this website have noted that the club – owned by Ivorian tycoon Tommy Tayaro Nyckoss – want to expand their recruitment to Southern Africa.
Tayaro Nyckoss can afford to pay any salaries.
Scroll through the gallery to see Kaizer Chiefs' confirmed departures
Arta Solar are keen to grow on the continent and have already had big names players in their books Alexandre Song (34), Idriss Carlos Kameni (38), Diafra Sakho (32), Alain Traore (33) and Dany Nounkeu (36) who all joined past their prime but are earning competitive salaries.
They have all played in Europe’s top leagues including the English Premier League and Spanish La Liga.
Their most recent signing was Salomon Kalou (36) who joined after a year without a club.
Kalou briefly played for Botafogo in Brazil after close to two decades in Europe where he played for Chelsea and won the UEFA Champions League.
Former French footballer Thierry Froger is the coach.
Based on the heavyweight profile of players that they have signed in recent times there has been consideration made to approach former Bafana Bafana and Kaizer Chiefs midfielder Siphiwe Tshabalala.
Tshabalala has been without a club since leaving AmaZulu last year and carries the kind of profile that Arta will be keen on having played in Europe and scored the opening goal of the 2010 World Cup.
That 2010 World Cup goal elevated him to global stardom which makes him relevant a dozen years later.
With this year’s World Cup being played just across the sea from Djibouti in Qatar it appears Tshabalala’s name will carry the weight that Arta Solar need.
The names of other players fitting that profile from the COSAFA are not known.
Continental club football gets underway in August with the preliminary rounds of both the Champions League and Confederation Cup.
Djibouti is a country with a population of just under one million and is mostly bordered by Ethiopia.
