Bafana Bafana and Castle Lager celebrated 30 years as the team that created an iconic partnership to shepherd South Africa into international football as a young national side that has since flown the country’s flag around the world.
It was on July 7, 1992, that the first South African national team proudly took to the field in international football to begin a journey of the country hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup, qualify for two more global tournaments – in 1998 and 2002 – and be crowned African champions in 1996.
The first match on a rainy day in Durban was against Cameroon’s Indomitable Lions played four days after FIFA had reinstated South Africa’s membership in world football’s governing body. This was giving hope to millions of young men and women seeking to follow their dreams of becoming professional footballers.
“We are proud to have been there at the birth of Bafana Bafana and to have played our part in heralding a new era for South African sport. Castle Lager has been with Bafana through all of their highs and lows, including winning the 1996 Africa Cup of Nations and playing at three World Cups. We shared the excitement of the nation as the team made those first tentative steps into the international fold,” said Wendy Bedforth, Castle Lager brand director.
The first-ever Bafana Bafana international was won via a Doctor Khumalo against many Cameroon players who had starred at the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy two years before, including veteran forward Roger Milla.
The tour continued in Cape Town two days later where the visitors won 2-1 before the teams played to a 2-2 draw in Johannesburg in a final to the whirlwind visit that had given local fans a taste of international football against a top-quality side.
