Ndlovu has been a one-club man in professional football to this point, coming through the development ranks at Golden Arrows.
Before that, he played for amateur sides Happy Crown in the SAB League, the fourth tier, and Newcastle All Stars in the ABC Motsepe League, the third tier.
He was raised in the rural KwaZulu-Natal town of Dannhauser, where there was once coal mining but now only cattle farms.
The 23-year-old is not the tallest at a little over 1.60 metres, but has magic in his boots, and rose to prominence through the Golden Arrows Diski Challenge side, where he caught the eye.
He scored six goals in 29 appearances for the second-string side, before being elevated to the first team at Abafana Bes’thende.
He made his Golden Arrows debut in August 2023, coming off the bench to score a goal in a 1-1 draw with Moroka Swallows. That earned him a first start in the following game at Richards Bay.
In all, he made 75 appearances, 59 of those starts, for the Durban-based side, scoring eight goals in three full seasons in the first team. He also pitched in with 13 assists for a goal contribution tally of 21.
Nicknamed ‘Skhwishi’, he played three matches against Sundowns and was part of the side that beat them 1-0 in September last year, though he lost the other two encounters.
Sundowns are short of experienced options on the right wing, so there is a good chance that Ndlovu gets almost immediate game time in the new season, though it remains to be seen if Thapelo Maseko is reintegrated into the squad after being frozen out and sent on loan.
His fine World Cup showings mean he will likely stay in Europe, leaving youngster Kutlwano Lethlaku and possibly Antonio Van Wyk as the other competition in the squad, if they decide to use the latter there.
