Home | Sports | WONDER ‘JIVES’ CLOSE TO FANS’ PLAYER AWARD

WONDER ‘JIVES’ CLOSE TO FANS’ PLAYER AWARD

28/07/2022 08:03:00 Chris Dlamini

Font size:

MBABANE – Votes released on the final day of voting for the MTN Premier League’s Player of the Year put’s Mbabane Swallows’ winger Wonder ‘Samba Jive’ Nhleko at an advantage.

He had been in the lead in the previous week but the cumulative results summary since voting started a month ago, as released on Tuesday, showed ‘Samba Jive’ was edging closer to 1 000 votes, with Mbabane Highlanders’ goal-a-game striker Sabelo ‘Sikhali’ Ndzinisa second and getting closer to 800 votes. Royal Leopard’s Junior Magagula is third on 597 votes. Meanwhile, it is expected tonight that either ‘Sikhali’ or Junior will walk away with the Player of the Year Award, after helping their teams finish as runners-up and champions, respectively. MTN Eswatini and the Premier League of Eswatini (PLE) will have the prize presentation ceremony at Esibayeni Lodge as of 6pm. Leopard will be crowned the champions again after successfully defending the title and will be returning to the TOTALEnergies CAF Champions League while Highlanders play in the second-tier tournament styled TOTALEnergies CAF Confederation Cup in September.

Closed

Noteworthy is that the fans’ voting will also see the winner crowned in a separate event once the final results are out. Voting closed at midnight this past Tuesday. Tonight’s winner will be crowned by the PLE Awards Committee chaired by Musa Masuku and will walk away with E15 000.
In the Coach of the Year category, Tambankulu Callies Head Coach Sifiso ‘Nuro’ Ntibane is on the lead despite having only joined mid-season. The latter is just like Samba Jive who returned in the second window from retirement. Next to Nuro who had 167 votes is Swallows’ Musa Manyatsi with 162 votes while Highlanders’ Selaotse Mosala who also joined mid-season is on third with 147. The results include those of the National MTN First Division League won by Seven Dreams but it is Nsingizini Hotspurs’ Themba Dladla enjoying a runaway lead before the final day votes. He had accumulated 329 votes to 196 and 195 by his teammate Masoso Simelane and runners-up Madlenya’s Lucky Gamedze, respectively.