Khama Billiat
Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE international, Khama Billiat, has been overtaken by defender and Mamelodi Sundowns teammate Anele Ngcongca as the Absa Premiership’s most prized asset.
According to Transfermarket South Africa, Billiat is now second in terms of value to Ngcongca.
Billiat is now worth an estimated £1.28 million (R22.3 million) compared to Ngcongca’s £1.7 million (R29.8 million).
Bernard Parker is third at a value of £808 000 (R14.1 million). Goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune (R12.6 million) and New Zealand international Jeremy Brockie (R14.1 million) complete the top five.
Ngcongca joined Sundowns in September from Belgian club Genk where he spent nine years and holds the record for most all-time appearances.
He won the league with Genk in the 2010/11 Belgian season and played in both the Uefa Champions League and Uefa Europa League with the club.
Billiat has been in breathtaking form in the Absa Premiership since joining “Abafana Bestyle” from Ajax Cape Town in 2013.
The right-footed striker became the first Zimbabwean in the South African PSL to provide 20 assists in one season, while also scoring 13 league goals.
The Warriors’ talisman stole the show at the 2015/16 PSL Awards when he swept virtually all individual honours on offer.
He scooped the top two awards; footballer of the season and Absa Premiership players’ player of the season. He also took home the midfielder of the season award.
So great has been his form that Bafana Bafana coach Shakes Mashaba drooled that he needed a player of Billiat’s calibre in his squad to solve his country’s goal-scoring problems after a 1-1 draw against Mauritania.
Billiat has played five games and scored three times in the Caf Champions League.
He will be hoping to carve his name in history as the first Zimbabwean to win the Caf Champions League when Sundowns meets Egypt’s Zamalek in the final, whose first leg is in Pretoria on Saturday and the return leg in the North African country a week later.