Yusuf Maart

Yusuf Maart arrived at Ried this year as club captain of Kaizer Chiefs, a role he earned after leading the Soweto giants to their first major trophy in a decade. His winning goal in the final of the 2024–25 Nedbank Cup, against Orlando Pirates of all sides, capped a run that took Chiefs to the title.

His path there was not a straight line. Spotted after being named Player of the Tournament at the 2016 SAB U-21 national championships, he broke into the Orlando Pirates first team but made only a single senior appearance in three years, spending a season on loan at Cape Umoya United instead. It was at Sekhukhune United, joined as a free agent in 2020, that his career took shape: 35 appearances, six goals, and a starring role in the club's promotion to the DStv Premiership. That form persuaded Kaizer Chiefs to sign him in June 2022 for a reported R6 million.

Internationally, Maart was part of the South Africa side that won the 2021 COSAFA Cup, beating Senegal on penalties in the final, and he scored his first goal for the national team in that tournament's semi-final against Mozambique.

His move to SV Ried in July 2025 closed the Chiefs chapter on a sour note for the South African club, who sold him for a fraction of what they had paid three years earlier. The deal also carried a 20% sell-on clause owed to Sekhukhune United, a sum that had gone unpaid by the following month and stirred a dispute between the two South African clubs even as their former player started life in Austria.