Aden McCarthy Takes the Sabah Bet to Old Trafford

Aden McCarthy is in Manchester with Sabah FK for a Champions League league-phase match against Manchester United on September 10, three months after leaving Kaizer Chiefs. The 22-year-old centre-back completed the move on June 9. Sabah then won four qualifying ties and reached the main stage for the first time.

The June pitch was simple: leave Naturena for European nights. Those nights are now on the calendar. His share of them is still a substitute’s share.

The April Clause That Let Him Leave

Chiefs had already rewritten his contract in April, after a first full senior season in which he stepped in during Rushwin Dortley’s long injury. The new deal carried a European buy-out. Sabah triggered it in early June, which ended the haggling and sent him for a medical.

Journalist Lorenz Kohler put the fee in the region of R7 million, excluding add-ons, with a resale cut kept by Chiefs. The percentage has not been published. Sabah then said a three years plus a one-year option contract had been signed with the South African defender, an academy player who had also appeared at under-23 level.

Sporting director Kaizer Motaung Jr confirmed the release the same evening, proud that McCarthy would play in the qualifying round of the next UEFA Champions League. The club site recorded 33 appearances across all competitions and two goals, plus a third-place Betway Premiership finish and a CAF Confederation Cup ticket.

https://x.com/KaizerChiefs/status/2064423747600138599

THE SALE IN FIGURES

• The fee: About R7 million, excluding add-ons, with an unpublished sell-on share.
• The new deal: Three years plus a one-year option at Sabah FK.
• The Chiefs season: 33 appearances and two goals in a first full senior campaign.
• The lever: An April European buy-out that Sabah triggered in June.

He is the second Chiefs academy graduate to join the Baku club, after Hendrick Ekstein’s spell in 2019/20. The sporting bet was the same in both cases. Only one of them arrived with a league title and a Champions League qualifying slot attached.

Four Rounds, Six Wins, Extra Time in Baku

Azerbaijan’s champion starts in the first qualifying round. Sabah, ranked 244 in the UEFA coefficient list at the end of 2025/26, had to win four ties to reach the 36-team league phase. Valdas Dambrauskas’ side did it, and became the first Azerbaijani club to travel the full Champions League qualifying road.

The qualifying results across four rounds ran in a straight line from Wales to Israel, with two recoveries after away defeats.

SABAH’S ROAD TO THE LEAGUE PHASE

Six of those eight matches were wins, an Azerbaijani record for a single European campaign. Qarabag had reached the main stage in 2017/18 and 2025/26. Sabah is the third club from the country to get there, and the first to do it in a debut Champions League season. The club itself was founded on 8 September 2017.

The play-off second leg was the night the wager stopped being theoretical. Hapoel led on aggregate until Tellur Mutallimov volleyed an equaliser in the 94th minute at a 27,890 crowd. Orphé Mbina scored in the 101st minute and Joy-Lance Mickels in the 115th. Serbian forward Veljko Simic had already scored six times in eight qualifying games. McCarthy came on in extra time.

McCarthy’s Minutes Have Stayed Small

His European record so far is a late cameo, then another. He debuted as a stoppage-time substitute in the 2-0 first-leg win over The New Saints on July 7. He was unused in the 4-0 home win that finished AGF, a tie that also featured Gift Links on the other side. On August 25 he stepped into extra time as Sabah closed out the 6-4 aggregate.

League football has given him more. He played a first full 90 minutes in a 2-0 Azerbaijan Premier League win over Kapaz PFK on August 15. Further cameos followed as Sabah started the domestic season. UEFA’s predicted XI for Old Trafford still listed Steve Solvet, Rahman Dashdamirov, Tymoteusz Puchacz and Akim Zedadka across the back, with McCarthy outside it.

MCCARTHY’S ROAD TO MANCHESTER

1. June 9, 2026: Completes the transfer from Kaizer Chiefs to Sabah FK.
2. July 7, 2026: Makes his Champions League debut as a late substitute against The New Saints.
3. August 15, 2026: Plays a first full 90 minutes in a 2-0 league win over Kapaz.
4. August 25, 2026: Comes on in extra time as Sabah beat Hapoel Be’er Sheva and reach the league phase.
5. September 10, 2026: Travels with the squad for Manchester United at Old Trafford.

Inacio Miguel, who played beside him in Chiefs’ third-place defence, called him a special boy and said he should be an example for youngsters at Chiefs and in South Africa. Miguel’s point was the work, not the shirt. McCarthy, he said, listened, stayed humble after reaching the first team, and treated Naturena as a step rather than a landing.

South African talk still argues over labels. Some want every line to say former Kaizer Chiefs. Some bristle when he is sold as a national-team regular. The cleaner reading is the minutes: two Champions League substitute appearances, a growing league role, and a seat on the bench for the biggest night of Sabah’s short history unless Dambrauskas changes his mind.

What Chiefs Took Back From the Sale

Chiefs did not wait for the gap to open. Thabo Moloisane, a free agent after leaving Stellenbosch, arrived as the first senior signing of the 2026/27 rebuild and started in an early-season meeting with Mamelodi Sundowns. The Soweto club also moved Ashley du Preez back to Stellenbosch on August 4, part of a wider shuffle that sent Given Msimango the same way and brought Langelihle Phili in the other direction.

The cash from McCarthy is the cleaner return. A left-footed centre-back who had just signed a new deal left for a fee instead of a free, and Chiefs kept a slice of the next sale. That is the Ngezana template in miniature. Siyabonga Ngezana’s last Naturena contract also carried a European exit, and he later joined FCSB.

Whether Chiefs miss McCarthy depends on Moloisane and on a defence that, in McCarthy’s breakthrough season, conceded 19 league goals, the second-lowest total after Orlando Pirates’ 12. The hole is real. So is the receipt.

Barcelona and Arsenal Are Still on the List

The league-phase opener against Manchester United is only the first of eight. Sabah trained at Old Trafford on September 9. Dambrauskas used the trip to mark the club’s own birthday, because the party boarded on 8 September, nine years to the day after Sabah were formed.

Yesterday we boarded the plane to come here, on 8 September, the date we were established in 2017. On the plane we celebrated the club’s birthday and now we’re here to play Manchester United, which is really amazing.

Valdas Dambrauskas, Sabah coach, on UEFA.com

He also said the staff were not thinking about the result so much as a performance against one of the best clubs in the world. McCarthy’s job on that night may be to wait. The rest of the list does not wait for anyone.

SABAH’S EIGHT LEAGUE-PHASE DATES

UEFA’s draw gave Sabah those eight league-phase opponents, four at home in Baku and four on the road. A player who left a third-placed PSL side in June now has Barcelona, Arsenal, Dortmund and United on the same printout. That is the return the buy-out was written to buy.

Why Naturena Keeps Writing European Clauses

McCarthy’s farewell note called Naturena a dream fulfilled, a walk from ball boy to senior shirt. The next sentence of that career is the part Chiefs now try to price in advance. Academy defenders who play 30-plus games attract bids. The club’s answer, used on Ngezana and then on McCarthy, is a fresh contract with a door that opens only when the fee is right.

THE RECENT AMAKHOSI LINE OUT OF NATORENA

• Siyabonga Ngezana: New deal with a European exit, then a move to FCSB.
• Yusuf Maart: Another recent senior export, leaving after first-team years in Soweto.
• Hendrick Ekstein: The first Chiefs academy player to pull on a Sabah shirt, in 2019/20.
• Aden McCarthy: One senior season, a buy-out, then a Champions League qualifying run that actually landed.

Each of those sales is a version of the export test facing Chiefs when a homegrown defender plays himself into European range. Hold too long and the contract runs down. Sell too cheap and the next clause is worthless. McCarthy’s file is the rare one where the European round he was sold toward is no longer a slogan on a release.

He may not start at Old Trafford. He is in the travelling party, on a three-year contract, with Barcelona still to visit Baku and Arsenal still to come in January. The bet was never a guaranteed place in Dambrauskas’ first XI. It was a door into these fixtures. On September 10, that door opens at Old Trafford.