Itumeleng Khune is a renowned football player from South Africa who was born on June 20, 1987, in Tshing, Ventersdorp. He is a goalie for both the SA National team and his PSL team, Kaizer Chiefs.Itumeleng, in his prime captained both teams and attracted the attention of soccer fans domestically and abroad on December 1, 2007. He gained national attention after stopping three (3) Mamelodi Sundowns penalty shots. In the Telkom Knockout final, he saved goals from Peter Ndlovu and Esrom Nyandoro. He is only the second goalie to have been asked to leave the field at a FIFA World Cup. This occurred in a soccer game versus Uruguay in June 2010.
Itu early career
He started playing professional football as a defender. He visited Chiefs in 1999 for trials. He became a ball boy after experiencing chest issues during a junior game. In a match against Jomo Cosmos in August 2007, Khune made his debut in the PSL. He won Goalkeeper of the Year honors during the 2013–14 football season. This marks the second time in a row that he has received the honor. He was identified as having a Grade 3 stress fracture in September 2014. He has been ill since February of that year.
His contract with Kaizer Chief expired in June 2015, and it was not extended. After extensive discussions, Khune returned to the squad, Chiefs, on July 30, of that same year, after signing a new deal. He debuted for the Bafana Bafana team in March 2008 against the African Nations Cup (2008). Despite being a member of the team, he did not participate in the game. He was the SA team’s first-choice goalkeeper at the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup. In all of the competitions of the African Cup of Nations, he represented the nation’s team (2013).
He was selected as the team’s captain in May of the same year and served in that capacity for the duration of the 2014 African Nations Championship. He was chosen as one of the SA’s overage players for the 2016 Summer Olympics. In South Africa’s opening match tie against Brazil, Khune had a significant impact. He made some incredible saves during the game to keep star player Neymar from scoring multiple goals.
Khune’s achievements in
Itumeleng Khune, the captain and goalkeeper for the Kaizer Chiefs, has spent the last 18 years with the senior squad.Despite having graduated from the Amakhosi academy in 2004, coach Muhsin Ertugral only gave him the chance to show his talent at the beginning of the 2007–2008 season.Khune has never looked back since Chiefs sold Rowen Fernandez to German team Arminia Bielefeld at the time.
Khune would consider himself fortunate to have maintained the distinctive form that made South Africa fall in love with him after 18 years as a professional player, especially given the fact that he is only 35 years old. But what noteworthy achievements has he made since being promoted to the first team 18 years ago?
Khune is the most accomplished player on the current Amakhosi team, having collected 13 major awards with the team since 2004, including three league titles. When the Chiefs successfully defended their league championship in 2004–05 under the guidance of the late Ted Dumitru, the Ventersdorp-born talent was simply a benchwarmer.
He nevertheless had a significant role in the Chiefs’ two league championship victories in 2013 and 2015, when Stuart Baxter oversaw the technical staff. Khune has won three league championships in addition to the Nedbank Cup twice, once in 2013 with the current sponsor and once in 2006 with Absa as the main sponsor. Between 2004 and 2015, he furthermore won four Telkom Knockout Cups and four MTN8 championships.
Khune’s trophies
Khune has won numerous awards for his outstanding play between the sticks throughout the years, both on and off the field. He received so many man of the match honors that it would be impossible to count them all. Soon after he entered the professional ranks, he won the Telkom Knockout Cup Goalkeeper of the Season and Player of the Season honors in 2007. These were his first two significant individual honors. At the South African Sports Awards in 2008, Khune received the Newcomer of the Year award.
At the Premier Soccer League (PSL) awards during the same time frame, he received two significant individual honors after being selected PSL Players’ Player of the Season and Rookie of the Year in addition to Goalkeeper of the Season.At the conclusion of the 2007–2008 campaign, he went on to win the Amakhosi Players’ Player of the Season and Goalkeeper of the Season honors. He would go on to win same honours once more at the conclusion of the 2012–2013 season when Chiefs won the league and cup in Baxter’s first season in charge. Despite the fact that the Chiefs did not take home a significant prize in 2014, Khune added another Goalkeeper of the Season honor.
Khune had previously won two individual honors at the SA Sports Awards and PSL Awards. Before winning Sportsman of the Year at the SA Sports Awards, he was crowned PSL Footballer of the Year in 2013.Khune was ranked among the top 50 players in the world by Goal once more in 2013. Khune has won 17 significant individual honors overall in his 18 years, which is a remarkable performance for a goalkeeper whose talent was developed in South Africa.
Khune’s rise to the international stage
Following a string of spectacular performances for Amakhosi, Khune at last received the opportunity to showcase his talent for the world of international football. On March 11, 2008, he made his Bafana Bafana debut. That happened soon after South Africa and he participated in the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations in Ghana. At the 2009 Fifa Confederations Cup in South Africa, Khune was the team’s first-choice goalkeeper. In one of Bafana’s opening games, he stopped David Villa of Spain from scoring on a penalty kick.
He also started two of Bafana’s three Fifa World Cup games played at home, but after receiving a red card in Bafana’s 3-0 loss to Uruguay, he was sidelined for the final group encounter against France. The Amakhosi goalkeeper competed for South Africa at both the 2014 Africa Nations Championship (Chan) and the 2013 Afcon competition.
He was a part of South Africa’s Olympic team for the 2016 Games and was one of the overage players. He was instrumental in his team’s opening-game tie with Brazil. With 91 caps, Khune is the second-most capped player for Bafana. Only Aaron Mokoena, a former professional football player who retired in 2013, has more.
Khune off the market
The playing career of football hero Itumeleng Khune has drawn as much interest as his personal life, which includes his wife Sphelele Makhunga, and their expanding family. Itumeng Khune of the Kaizer Chiefs and the mother of his two children have enjoyed a happy couple of years. The couple has been married traditionally since 2019 after khune paid lobola . Two daughters were born to Khune and Sphelele as a couple. Amogelang Zenande, their eldest child, and Lesedi Zenande, their youngest. While Sphe never fails to tell her followers how happy her marriage and motherhood are, Khune frequently posts on social media about how much he loves being a parent.
After Khune’s split with fitness instructor Sbahle Mpisane in 2019, the couple’s relationship gained attention. After a few years of dating in the public eye, Khune and Mpisane called it quits in late 2018. The athlete married Makhunga in a surprise ceremony a year later, and in February of the following year, they had their first child, Amogelang Zenande Khune. Khune and his wife are ten years apart in age. Owner of the events and décor company Eminence, Makhunga plans celebrations including birthday parties and baby showers. She also founded Eminence Florist, whose flowers and roses are sold in Johannesburg garages.On her Instagram feed, Makhunga routinely promotes her enterprises. She is close to her family and friends, yet little is known about her life before she met Khune.
Being a goalkeeper’s wife, Mrs. Khune is also pretty active. She has released progress videos of her muscle growth with personal trainer Vusi Mavreka Hlabangwana, also known as blckvreka, and video training sessions with her spouse in their home gym. In June 2021, Makhunga and Khune welcomed a baby girl named Ziyanda as their second child. Amogelang, their first child, was born in February 2020.
Itumeleng Khune’s relationship history
Itumeleng Khune had numerous relationships before he met and married his wife, some of them even involving well-known ladies in the business. Itu and prominent TV star Minnie Dlamini were a beautiful couple a few years back when they were dating. They didn’t get along, and after a few years they split up. Minnie then started dating and then married Quinton Jones, whom he later divorced. Itu dated the musician Ntombi Mzolo before dating Minnie, and after breaking up with Minnie, he briefly dated Vanessa Masilo. The fitness model and Shauwn Mkhize’s stepdaughter Sbahle Mpisane, whom the Bafana Bafana star also briefly dated, broke up since their relationship was not meant to be. Itu wanted to be married and have children, however Sbahle didn’t, and they both decided to stop their relationship because of this, according to an episode of KwaMamkhize.
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