Sipho Mbule: The Master Chef's Soccer Clubs, Caps and Net Worth

Sipho Mbule is a South African central midfielder, born on 22 March 1998 in Bethlehem in the Free State and known across the PSL as The Master Chef. He joined Zakho SC of the Iraqi Stars League in June 2026, after a treble winning season at Orlando Pirates and earlier spells at Mamelodi Sundowns and SuperSport United. He has worn the shirts of Sundowns in 2022 and Pirates in 2025, and that dated pair is a large part of why his name travels so quickly through South African soccer talk.

If you have searched for him and found one record placing him at Chloorkop and another at Orlando, you are in good company, because many profiles were last updated a move or two ago. What follows is the dated version of his story: each club with its year, the reasons reported for each switch, the caps on record, and the money figures set beside the outlets that published them. The live modules above carry the numbers that change after every match, and the words below explain how to read them.

Who Is Sipho Mbule?

Sipho Percevale Mbule is a central midfielder from Bethlehem in the Free State, born on 22 March 1998. He is listed at 1.77 m tall. He came through the SuperSport United academy, made his senior debut in August 2017, and has since represented four Premiership clubs, counting one loan.

Which club does Sipho Mbule play for? Zakho SC, of the Iraqi Stars League, announced his signing on 27 June 2026 for the 2026-27 season, and that is the move dated 27 June 2026. Older snapshots still attach him to Sundowns or to Pirates, so the date beside the club name is the detail to check. Registrations can change in any transfer window, which is why the club shown in the live profile module above is the final word, with the dated move here as its background.

South African readers account for most of the interest in his name, and the badges explain it. Sundowns and Pirates dominate talk radio alongside Kaizer Chiefs, and Mbule has been signed by two of those clubs and pursued by the third. For readers in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana and Uganda, the same names usually arrive through the CAF Champions League and the CAF Confederation Cup, the continent's senior and second club competitions, where Sundowns and Pirates are regular South African entrants.

The Road From Bethlehem to Zakho

The road starts in the Free State. Mbule joined Harmony Sports Academy in 2013 alongside Teboho Mokoena, who would also become a Bafana Bafana midfielder, and the pair moved on through the SuperSport United academy. His senior debut for SuperSport came in August 2017, when he was 19, and he stayed until 2022. His record there lists 84 league appearances and 9 goals to the end of the 2021-22 season.

The first big move came in June 2022. News24 reported that Mamelodi Sundowns had signed him from SuperSport on a three year deal for an undisclosed fee, and that Masandawana had beaten Kaizer Chiefs to the signature. That Chiefs detail is why the transfer was discussed far beyond Pretoria, because it placed him in the middle of the country's loudest transfer rivalry. The interest from both clubs was the real compliment, since it showed how highly a 24 year old from Bethlehem was rated by two of the biggest sides in the land.

Competition for midfield places at Chloorkop is as fierce as anywhere on the continent, and Sundowns sent him to Sekhukhune United on a season long loan for 2024-25, a move confirmed by The Citizen. A loan like that is best read as a search for minutes, because a central midfielder needs a run of starts to show his passing range. His appearances and goals for both clubs sit in the live data module.

When the loan ended, Sundowns did not take up the option on his contract, and Orlando Pirates signed him as a free agent in June 2025. A free agent move means that no transfer fee passes between clubs, so the Buccaneers added a Bafana Bafana midfielder without paying another side. He spent the 2025-26 season at Orlando, and the Sowetan recorded 23 appearances in all competitions and one goal in a campaign that brought three trophies.

The Iraq move of 27 June 2026 took him outside the PSL for the first time in his senior career. Zakho SC announced his signing for the 2026-27 season. No fee figure appears anywhere on this timeline: the 2022 fee was undisclosed, the Sekhukhune switch was a loan, Pirates signed him as a free agent, and no fee has been published for the Zakho transfer. The table below sets the moves side by side.

Why Is He Called The Master Chef?

Why is Sipho Mbule called The Master Chef? The nickname is recorded in his encyclopaedia entry. No origin story has been published, so who said it first is not known. The name explains itself the moment you think about his position. A central midfielder is the one in the kitchen, taking the ball from the defence and preparing it for the forwards to finish.

Mbule is listed as a central midfielder, which in South African diski terms places him between the holding player and the number ten, linking the two. His scoring record supports that reading, because 9 goals in 84 league appearances for SuperSport is a useful return, but it is the return of a supplier more than a finisher. Perhaps the fairest way to judge him is by how the players around him look when he has the ball.

The defining dates on his record are easy to place. He made his senior debut in August 2017 at 19, he played for the national under 20 side in the same year, and he was part of the Pirates squad that won three domestic trophies in 2025-26. When you read the stats module above, start with appearances and minutes before you look at goals, because a playmaker's season is measured first by how often the coach trusts him with the middle of the pitch. Counting goals alone is a little like judging a chef by counting plates.

Bafana Bafana: How Many Caps Does Sipho Mbule Have?

How many caps does Sipho Mbule have? His senior appearances and goals for South Africa are carried by the live data module above, because every international window can change them. Use the module for the running total, and read the figure there as the current count for his senior career.

His international story began at youth level. He played for the South Africa under 20 side in 2017, the year he broke into the SuperSport first team, with 5 appearances listed, and for the under 23 side in 2019, with 3 more. The gap between those youth years and his senior total in the data module shows how hard it is to hold a Bafana Bafana midfield place, with the likes of Teboho Mokoena, his old academy companion, in the same queue.

The biggest line on his national record came on 1 December 2025, when he was named in South Africa's squad for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations. Supporters in Lagos, Nairobi, Accra and Kampala will know what that selection means, since a tournament squad place is harder to win than a friendly cap. What would add to his senior goals is simple enough: more starts in the middle for Bafana Bafana, which in turn depend on regular club minutes.

Honours: The Treble Season at Orlando Pirates

Mbule's one season at Orlando Pirates ended with a domestic treble. The Sowetan recorded that the Buccaneers won the MTN8, the Carling Knockout and the Betway Premiership in 2025-26, and that Mbule made 23 appearances in all competitions and scored once along the way. For readers outside South Africa, the MTN8 is the season opening cup for the top eight finishers from the previous league season, the Carling Knockout is the league's knockout cup, and the Premiership is decided on the log over the full league programme.

How should 23 appearances and one goal be read? As the record of a squad midfielder in a side that needed depth to chase three trophies at once. A treble is won by rotation as much as by a first eleven, and a player who is trusted in cup ties and league matches alike has earned his share of it. The honours module above lists his trophies as they are confirmed, so new entries from Iraq or from Bafana Bafana will appear there without the story here needing to change.

Sipho Mbule net worth

Briefly News reported Sipho Mbule's net worth at 'over $100,000' in July 2021, citing a celebrity profile site, and that is the only net worth figure from a news outlet on his record. It is an unverified estimate, with no financial disclosure or club statement behind it, and the same Briefly article said that his salary was not known at the time. The figure also dates from his SuperSport United years, before the moves to Sundowns, Pirates and Zakho, so it should be read as one outlet's snapshot from 2021.

On salary, Briefly News 'guesstimated' his monthly pay at R350,000 in its Sundowns salary list, which was first published in June 2023 and updated in March 2026. The outlet labels that number an estimate, and it refers to his time at Chloorkop only. What Orlando Pirates paid him in 2025-26 was never disclosed, and the same is true of his Zakho contract. A single salary figure quoted for him without a club and a year attached should be treated with care.

What about market value, image rights and endorsements? No origin story, market value or fee has been published, and no image rights or endorsement figures have been reported. The two figures above are therefore left in the currencies in which they were published, dollars for the net worth estimate and rand for the salary estimate. Readers in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana and Uganda can convert them into naira, and into shillings or cedis, at the day's rate, which moves too often for a fixed conversion to stay accurate.

It helps to understand the working behind numbers like these, because they are published estimates and never accounts. A transfer fee goes to the selling club, so the undisclosed sum Sundowns paid in 2022 went to SuperSport United, and his free agent move to Pirates involved no fee between clubs. A wage is income over a period, while net worth is what a person owns after everything he owes and spends, and outsiders can see neither side of that sum. That is why the honest reading is a short list of guesses, each with its outlet and its year.

Why Did Sipho Mbule Move to Iraq?

Why did a treble winner leave the PSL for the Iraqi Stars League? The clearest explanation on record comes from his agent, Mike Makaab, who was reported in June 2026 as saying that Mbule had a lot of interest from outside South Africa, notably from North Africa, before he chose Zakho. That account matters because it frames the move as a choice among several offers. A 28 year old midfielder with a Bafana Bafana tournament squad place behind him had options, and he took the one in Iraq.

It could be argued that pay plays a part in decisions like this, but the Zakho terms were never disclosed, so nothing firm can be said about the money. What can be said is that Zakho announced him in June 2026 for the 2026-27 season, and that his agent described a choice among several offers.

What comes next depends on things the modules will show better than any forecast. Regular starts in Iraq would keep him in the national selectors' sight, and a strong spell abroad often opens doors in North Africa or back home in the Premiership. A return to South Africa one day would restart the debate about which of the big clubs suits him, and both Soweto and Pretoria would have their say. Until then, the appearance data above is the thing to follow, read month by month and never match by match.

How to Watch Sipho Mbule From Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Ghana and Uganda

Following a player in Iraq from an African sofa starts with the clock. Iraq keeps the same time as East Africa, so a kick off in Zakho reads the same in Nairobi and Kampala (EAT), one hour earlier in Johannesburg (SAST), two hours earlier in Lagos (WAT) and three hours earlier in Accra (GMT). The fixtures module above shows every kick off in WAT, EAT, SAST and GMT together, which saves you the arithmetic. Check it on the day, because league schedules are often confirmed close to the match.

Broadcast rights differ between countries and between tournaments, so the broadcast listing in the module is the place to look, since deals change from one season to the next. Iraqi Stars League coverage is likely to be thinner across Africa than PSL coverage, so many supporters will follow his club soccer through results and his Bafana Bafana appearances through their usual pay TV or streaming service. Matches involving South Africa tend to be the easiest of his fixtures to find in all five countries.

The practical routine is to read the fixtures module in your own time zone and to look at the appearance data after each international window, when the cap count is most likely to have moved. Return to the money figures only when a new one arrives with an outlet and a year attached. If Mbule is one name on a longer list for you, the profiles of other African soccer players follow the same dated layout, from his Bafana Bafana team mates to the Nigerian and Ghanaian internationals he may meet at a tournament.