Solomons fighting for new deal

In local football, contract lengths are never quite known for sure.

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Whilst some clubs announce the length of the deal when signing a new player, we know that many contracts have clauses for the club to either renew (known as an 'option') or even get-out clauses to offload a player early. In the case of Dillan Solomons, we know for certain that he arrived in 2022 on a four-year contract which expires in June. If we rewind to March of this year, the speedy Cape Town-born man had started just four of the previous 58 matches across 19 months with the Glamour Boys. His Amakhosi career looked to be on life support. Since then, he has made himself a regular in the lineup once again and also a key tactical chess piece. In this feature, we examine whether Chiefs should renew the player's contract and we look at why Solomons may be key to the tactics employed by the co-coaches, Cedric Kaze and Khalil Ben Youssef.

From the stands to a trophy winner

To get an idea of just how far Dillan Solomons has come as a Kaizer Chiefs player, we need to look back on his first three seasons at the club. In reality, he was a fringe player for long stretches and not many would have foreseen his current role in the starting lineup!

The 2022/23 season saw him arrive at Naturena as a player who had just been converted from a winger to a fullback role at Moroka Swallows. His first season at Chiefs was a mixed bag, initially winning the battle for the right-back role, but struggling with his defensive duties. Reeve Frosler's return saw Solomons benched for a long stretch, but he did end the season getting minutes in a more advanced winger role. Overall, he did not really look like a successful signing and many other clubs would have offloaded him after just a year. He was given 26 outings and around 1,800 minutes of pitch time overall, though.