Orlando Pirates Prepare for Patrick Maswanganyi's Move to Asia

Orlando Pirates are bracing for life without another of their title-winning stars, with midfielder Patrick “Tito” Maswanganyi on the brink of a move to Asia.

The Soweto giants are understood to have all but wrapped up negotiations with an unnamed club in the Asian Football Confederation, paving the way for the 28-year-old to start a new chapter after three influential seasons in black and white.

The clearest sign something was brewing came in Polokwane.

Maswanganyi was nowhere to be seen at the Old Peter Mokaba Stadium as Pirates edged Sekhukhune United 1–0 in the first leg of their semifinal, Deon Hotto’s strike separating the sides. After the game, coach Abdeslam Ouaddou confirmed the playmaker was not injured, effectively killing off any suggestion of a fitness issue and fuelling talk of an imminent exit.

Pirates snapped up “Tito” from SuperSport United in 2023. He didn’t need a settling-in period. He lit up the midfield, won over the terraces, and drove the Buccaneers to their first league title since 2012, ending Mamelodi Sundowns’ long grip on the trophy.

For a while, it looked like the champions had stemmed the outflow of key talent.

Relebohile Mofokeng, the reigning Footballer of the Year and the team’s talisman, had already been sold to Belgian side Union Saint-Gilloise shortly after the FIFA World Cup. The assumption was that Pirates would draw a line there, hold on to the rest of their core, and defend their crown at full strength.

That idea hasn’t survived the off-season.

The club have confirmed the departure of right-back Deano van Rooyen after two years in Soweto. Now Maswanganyi, who had featured in every fixture leading up to the trip to face Babina Noko in Polokwane, appears next in line for the exit door.

If the deal goes through, this won’t be Maswanganyi’s first taste of life abroad. As a teenager he left the Stars of Africa Academy for Portugal, spending several years there and sharpening the technical edge that later made him such a weapon in the DStv Premiership.

On the international stage, he owns four Bafana Bafana caps, a modest tally that doesn’t quite reflect his club impact. He missed out on selection for the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco at the start of the year, and again for the World Cup, slipping down the national team pecking order at the worst possible time.

Now, with Asia calling and Pirates reshaping a squad that only recently climbed back to the summit, the question hangs in the air: how many more pillars of this title-winning side can the Buccaneers afford to lose?