A club steeped in history with a proud and rich tradition of success and excellence, Orlando Pirates have some extraordinary records.
The Sea Robbers have enjoyed having standout stars in their midst and have also assembled some of the great PSL teams.
Orlando Pirates, have a long history of success, having won the National Professional Soccer League title in 1971, 1973, 1975, and 1976, the National Soccer League title in 1994, and the Premier Soccer League title four times in 2001, 2003, 2011, and 2012.
Their 2010/2011 season as dubbed ‘the Happy Season’ as they swept to four titles claiming the league, Nedbank Cup, MTN 8 and Telkom Knockout in the same campaign.
Four Orlando Pirates club records that are imperious
Some records are unlikely to be broken. This could be because of changes to the season’s structure.
Others aren’t in danger because of changes to how the team actually operates.
Most PSL goals for Orlando Pirates
Bucs aren’t exactly banging them in at a rate of knots and they don’t have a natural goalscorer in their midst right now.
Benedict Vilakazi, who has a total of 52 PSL goals to his name, holds the current club record.
Between 1999 and 2007, Vilakazi was in great form for Pirates scoring a total of 58 goals in 170 matches.
The chances of this record being broken were seriosuly dminished when Pirates sold their current leading-scorer, Thembinkosi Lorch, to Sundowns.
Kermit Erasmus (26) and Vincent Pule (23) have the most league goals in the squad at the time of writing.
Most goals in a season
There isn’t really a reason that this record should be out of reach other than Pirates’ struggle to find goal-scorers.
Dennis Lota set the mark of 23 goals in a season back in the 1999/2000 campaign.
Lota tragically passed away in 2014 at the age of just 40 after contracting malaria.
As things stand at time of writing, Zakhele Lepasa’s 10 goals this campaign leads the way for Pirates in 2023/2024.
Most appearances
The current appearance record for Orlando Pirates is held by Happy Jele. He cracked 400 before he daparted the club.
Innocent Maela currently ranks as the player in the squad with the most Pirates’ appearances to his name with 184.
Jele surpassed Lucky Lekgwathi to become the all-time appearance leader.
Barring an unexpected return to Mayfair for Jele this record looks safe for some time.
Most international caps while at Orlando Pirates
The legendary Teko Modise earned 58 of his 66 Bafana Bafana caps while at Orlando Pirates.
That cap record doesn’t appear to be in any great danger although we might see it go abroad.
Namibia’s Deon Hotto could be a player that still earns a number of international caps while he is at Pirates.
The likes of Patrick Maswanganyi and Monnapule Saleng could still play a lot of matches for Bafana. However, they may not stay at Orlando Pirates.
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