Free agent Wayde Lekay completes Swedish move

SABC Sport has established Lekay, who was a free agent, had initially left South Africa to be assessed by Helsingborg, a side coached by a familiar face in ex-Bafana Bafana, Kaizer Chiefs and SuperSport United mentor Stuart Baxter because the club urgently needed a striker. 

However, it’s third division outfit Trollhättan who’ve snaped the forward up to help them gain promotion in the final weeks of the season. 

Baxter was hoping Helsingborg would clinch a deal for Orlando Pirates forward Zakhele Lepasa, but he turned his attention to Lekay when the Buccaneers decided against selling the national team star. 

He confirmed to the public broadcaster Lekay had spent some time at Helsingborg, but due to work permit delays the move has been put on hold. 

“Yes, Wayde was here with us with the idea of getting him in because we needed a No.9 to strengthen our options upfront. We’ve not completely given up, but we have been informed his papers could take a bit longer than we would like and my understanding is that he will stay in Sweden at another club,” Baxter said. 

Indications are that Lekay has several options moving forward with Utsiktens BK also keen on his services after inviting him to their training base with the possibility of taking the striker on a short-term deal to strengthen their push for promotion to the Allsvenskan Premier League next season. 

The current log leaders were three points clear at the summit with 11 games to go, which would have given Lekay only a few games to make an impact, but they did not have a spot and used their ties with Trollhättan to keep him in the country. 

Despite recently putting together a six game unbeaten run, Baxter side has struggled once again and find themselves second from bottom of the table and risk being relegated to the third tier. 

Helsingborg last week signed midfielder Cole Alexander following his Chiefs exit, where he’d previously worked with Baxter.