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The Forgotten Heroes of South African Football |
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Written by Aboobaker "Boebie" Williams
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Commitment Honoured:
“We need to nurture talent and there is a need to integrate all races in club and school teams,” said former South African great and one of the few players in our country to be recognised by the Confédération Africaine de Football (CAF), Bernard Hartze. “Former top players, irrespective of colour must be approached to serve on coaching structures at provincial and national levels.”
Hartze displayed his football talent in South Africa, United States and briefly in England too. His illustrious career saw him star for Sundowns: – now Mamelodi Sundowns – Orlando Pirates, Cape Town Spurs, Cape Town United, Tamba Bay Rowdies in USA. He also had a trial at Leeds, but was sabotaged by aprtheid denying him the seven international caps that legendary Leeds United manager Don Revie said were needed. Revie was being a tad disingenuous.
Courage and Principle:
Hartze recalls he was part of a group of teenagers who helped revive Sundowns in 1964. His older brothers Roy and Reggie (both deceased), as well as his life long friend Yazeed (Joey) Lawrence, Sunny Boy Chauke, Pro Motsepe and Ingle Singh were among his team mates.
The teenage goal-predator whom Sundowns’ fans nicknamed ‘Dancing Shoes’ in recognition of his nifty footwork and also his Cliff Richard hit-parader, ‘Dancing Shoes’ in the early 1960s, soon earned to play professional football.
Hartze defied the inhuman apartheid laws that forbade so-called coloured or white players from joining black football clubs in Soweto when he teamed up with greats like Kaiser Motaung and Chippa Maloi at Orlando Pirates. Blackpool continued the link begun the great Sir Stanley Matthews with South Africa. The legendary footballer had no truck with apartheid and is still revered here as well as in his homeland.
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Prestigious:
“MCC [the Marylebone Cricket Club] doesn’t have the resources to help everyone, but it will do its best to support where it possibly can,” its President, former Sussex captain John Barclay, told us exclusively. The days when MCC ran the game are long gone, but it still retains prestige and influence around the world. Its sponsorship of the recent Spirit of Cricket Series between Pakistan and Australia deservedly won it the admiration of the cricketing world, but there is far more to MCC than this.
Africa’s football World Cup is over and legacy projects abound. Now the under-fire African Cup of Nations spreads development projects throughout the continent. Infrastructures – not just football ones – have to be developed with forward planning and clear plans. Ghana for one benefited immensely from hosting the tournament in 2008. But what about cricket? Does it have a role in developing the oldest inhabited continent?
“I think any initiative that can be financed to achieve an end that brings nations together, giving opportunities – not necessarily producing great cricketers or great footballers – but bringing nations together in greater harmony, so much the better,” Barclay told us. “MCC works very closely with ICC [the International Cricket Council] to try and work through the nations of the world. It’s really ICC’s responsibility now to put that into action, but we are great supporters where we possibly can in Africa or America.”
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New Challenges:
Just before the World Cup Ivorian defensive midfielder Gnégnéri Yaya Touré announced that he had agreed to leave Barcelona to join Manchester City. There will be stiff competition for places in the Sky Blues’ midfield as well. Touré Yaya, as he is known, will be the highest paid player in the English Premier League with a contract reportedly worth more than £200,000 per week.
However, Yaya is a thoughtful young man with a social conscience. Along with his older brother Kolo Touré, Yaya is one of the few Muslims playing top flight football in England and never forgot his roots – grinding poverty that taught him the value of money. His hunger wasn’t just for success.
He has eight siblings and could easily have been lost to football due to nutritional issues back then. Now wealthy beyond his wildest dreams, Yaya left Barcelona for football reasons as well. He wants to help Manchester City achieve success and manager Roberto Mancini is set to build his team around the talented midfielder.
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Written by Aboobaker ‘Boebie’ Williams
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Nine players from CF Barçelona’s famed youth academy helped Spain to win the World Cup as they defeated Holland to lift the trophy for the first time. La Masia has produced a host of stars in recent seasons and now Víctor Valdés, Pepe Reina, Carles Puyol, Gerard Piqué, Sergio Busquets, Xavi Hernández, Andrés Iniesta, Cesc Fàbregas and Pedro Rodríguez have all reached the highest level in the game.
Pedro, 23, and Busquets, 22, were both playing in La Tercera (the Spanish fourth división) just two years ago and have risen with incredible speed to become world champions. Full house of medals: Three Barça players have now won every trophy available to them with Xavi; Iniesta and Puyol having added to the European Championships and the six triumphs with Barça last year. Double glory: Xavi, Iniesta and Puyol are the only Barça players to have won the European Championship in 2008 and the World Cup in 2010.
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Written by Aboobaker "Boebie" Williams
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Reflection:
The World Cup is over. South Africans are happy about the tournament if not the results of the Bafana Bafana, although we are proud of the team. South Africa beat France but failed to qualify for the last 16 at the 2010 FIFA World Cup. ‘Kenako’ is an African expression that means: ‘Now is the time.’ South Africa had a plan – a good one – that began over a decade ago with an African-born coach (there were only two at Africa’s World Cup), Carlos Queiroz.
The plan was to learn modern methods on the job, training the next generation of local coaches on the job by giving them experience. I was one of those coaches, but football is an impatient business on and off the field. There were some who thought that they were ready to lead the national team then and did their best to undermine Queiroz. He did comparatively well at the African Cup of Nations in spite of it and was sacked. [1] It happened again under Carlos Alberto Parreira.[2]
A good plan was wasted and we became the first host nation to fail to make it out of the group stage. We were a bit unlucky, but that is no excuse. It is time for the South African Football Association (SAFA) to sit back and ponder over their inefficient football development programmes and their lingering hangovers that remain from the birth of the Rainbow nation and our taste for miracles. We always pray for a miracle to happen and save our inadequacies.
Miracles:
The minor miracle of drawing with Mexico in the opening game begat expectations that it would be followed by another: a win against Uruguay. Sorry, the Vuvusela did not work this time round. A case in point was the country’s reaction, including the fat cats of the SAFA, to the loss against Uruguay.
There seemed to be a genuine shock that a team ranked 83rd in the world lost to one positioned sixty-seven places above them. We thought that we could beat them irrespective of their past reputations: Uruguay won the cup twice and Diego Forlán was twice European Golden Boot winner and obviously winner of La Pichichi in Spain. He also went on to win the Golden Ball in our World Cup.
They were better than us and by some distance and canny too. Luis Suárez knew enough to trip over our keeper to win a penalty and get our number one goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune sent off. Suárez would later demonstrate his own goalkeeping skills by making the most important save of the whole tournament.
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