Luke Baartman: The Rising Star of Kaizer Chiefs

Luke Baartman is fast becoming the new soundtrack at Naturena.

The 20-year-old forward, once tagged as a classic penalty-box number nine, has exploded into the 2026/27 Premier Soccer League season with a different script and a different role. On Wednesday night at FNB Stadium, he underlined that transformation, scoring his first goal of the campaign in Kaizer Chiefs’ clinical 2-0 victory over Sekhukhune United.

It felt like a moment of arrival. Not just a goal. A statement.

From fringe figure to frontline weapon

This is not the same Baartman who tiptoed through his debut season in gold and black. Then, he was a promising youngster on the periphery, restricted to just seven appearances and fighting for minutes behind more established names.

Now, under Fernando Da Cruz, he looks unshackled.

The Frenchman has taken the former Urban Warriors striker and dragged him out of the comfort zone of the central channel, asking him to roam, to adapt, to become a modern forward rather than a fixed-point finisher.

“Modern football now requires players who are able to play in many positions,” Da Cruz said, speaking to FARPost. For Baartman, that has meant learning to operate across the front line, picking up the ball in different pockets, and making sense of new pictures on the pitch.

“For a young player like Luke Baartman, it’s important to give him different tools to be able to play in different positions,” the coach explained. “The most important thing for him is to read the game, for example, knowing what to do when he receives the ball in different situations of the game.”

The pressure on the youngster has grown with every outing. So has his influence.

Spain tour that changed the conversation

The shift in thinking around Baartman did not start under the PSL lights. It started in Europe.

During Chiefs’ high-profile pre-season tour of Spain, the technical team saw more than a finisher waiting for service. They saw a player comfortable linking play, stretching defences, and attacking space out wide as well as through the middle.

That tour effectively rewrote his job description.

Da Cruz and his staff came back from Spain convinced they had more than a traditional target man on their hands. They had a flexible, explosive attacker who could be moulded into a multi-dimensional threat.

“It’s a player with good technical qualities and also a player with good explosiveness when he plays football,” Da Cruz said. Those qualities are now being showcased in a structure built to let him move, press, and combine, not just wait for crosses.

Talent, temperament, and the listening ear

Plenty of young players flash talent. Fewer pair it with the temperament that coaches trust.

On that front, Baartman is ticking boxes as quickly as he is finding form.

“He is a young player and, for the moment, he listens to what the coaches ask of him, which is very important to me,” Da Cruz noted. “The most important thing for young players is to listen to what the coach wants, because sometimes young players think that they are experienced. But Luke is very focused and knows what the coach expects from him.”

In an era where early hype can derail careers, Chiefs’ boss keeps returning to Baartman’s humility and willingness to learn. Inside a changing room full of pressure and expectation, that attitude matters as much as his first touch.

The result is a player who looks sharper, more confident, and more involved than at any point since joining the Glamour Boys.

Managing the rise, guarding against the fall

The excitement around Baartman is real. So is the fixture list.

Chiefs face a punishing schedule this season: the Premier Soccer League grind, the demands of the CAF Confederation Cup, and domestic knockout commitments in the Carling Knockout and Nedbank Cup. For a 20-year-old still building his body and his career, that load can turn from opportunity to overload very quickly.

Inside Naturena, the medical and technical teams know it.

Da Cruz made it clear they will not treat Baartman like a machine. “As an experienced coach, I know that I cannot ask Luke to perform at a high level throughout the whole season,” he admitted. “Sometimes he will need to recover, so we need to support him at different times of the season.”

So while the crowd sings his name and the goals start to flow, Chiefs are trying to strike a balance: unleash the new star, but protect the young man.

If they get that balance right, this early surge may not just be a hot streak. It might be the season Kaizer Chiefs’ new number nine-in-name-only grows into the complete forward they have been waiting for.