Kaizer Chiefs have confirmed that academy graduate and rising star Steven Mendes has completed a move to Swedish top-flight side, Hammarby.
The move comes on the back of a successful two-week long trial in Sweden and was confirmed by Chiefs via a statement uploaded on the club's website on Thursday.
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Academy graduate heading to Europe
— Kaizer Chiefs (@KaizerChiefs) August 29, 2024
Promising midfielder, Steven Mendes, has left the Kaizer Chiefs youth development academy to join Swedish top-tier side, Hammarby IF Fotbollförening, commonly known as Hammarby.#Amakhosi4Life #KCYouth
The 16-year-old had joined the club development ranks in 2022, playing for their U15s in the Gauteng Development League (GDL).
After impressing, he was quickly promoted to the U17 side and was also registered in Amakhosi's DStv Diski Challenge squad.
"Steven is a player with tremendous potential and the type of temperament to make it as a professional footballer, so we are excited at the prospect of him displaying his unique qualities on the European stage," Chiefs' Sporting Director Kaizer Motaung Jr told the club's website.
"We are proud of him and wish him every success on his exciting journey. It is another feather in the cap of the Kaizer Chiefs development structures, which continue to excel in cultivating the potential of young players and demonstrates the excellent level of our academy project state."
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Interestingly, the club is partly owned by Swedish football legend Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who bought a quarter of the Stockholm-based club.
Mendes becomes the latest in in a trend of young South African players attracting interest abroad, as SuperSport United's Shandre Campbell has joined Belgian top-flight outfit Club Brugge.
For Chiefs, the move further reaffirms the side's academy strength which was on display recently with as many as four Chiefs players included in the last South Africa Boys Under 20 squad that was selected for two friendlies against Lesotho recently.
Meanwhile four players in the Eastern Cape-based Carlos Youth Soccer Development Academy could be next to secure European move after receiving an invitation to be assessed by Scottish side Livingston in September.