The 2020 football year in review: The highs, lows and disappointments

My local highlight of the year

Mamelodi Sundowns proved again why they are the best team in the country, pipping Kaizer Chiefs to the post in the DStv Premiership title race and winning the Nedbank Cup, thus completing a domestic treble for the first time under Pitso Mosimane’s trophy-laden guidance. It was a  third league title in a row, a fifth in seven seasons, and a fitting way for Mosimane to finish his Sundowns career, as “Jingles” jetted off to Cairo to join Al Ahly.

My international highlight of the year

Competing at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics would undoubtedly have been the highlight of South Africa’s international footballing year, but Covid-19 put paid to that and David Notoane’s side will (hopefully) now have to show the world what they can do in 2021. Bafana Bafana also barely played this year by their standards, but did manage two wins over Sao Tome in November, albeit not hugely convincing wins against the island minnows, that keep them on track to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations finals in Cameroon.

My biggest disappointment of 2020 

Another two South African footballers were killed on the roads of South Africa in 2020, Anele Ngcongca and Motjeka Madisha passing away in car accidents just a few weeks apart. Ngcongca, at just 32 years old, died on November 23, and Madisha, even younger at 25, on December 12, adding to an all-too long list of talent lost to South African football in this way. It is hard to know what can be done, and road accidents are a national problem, by no means belonging exclusively to football. But the authorities need to take a serious look at what is happening to our players. The deaths of Gift Leremi, Richard Henyekane, Lesley Manyathela, Ngcongca and Madisha, to name just five, cannot be in vain.

My biggest surprise of 2020 

Bidvest Wits deciding to sell up in their 99th year came as a shock to the local football community, not least the Wits staff and players, who didn’t seem to know about the decision until very late in the game. Wits were one of the dominant forces in the Premier Soccer League under Gavin Hunt, but with the economic impact of Covid-19 probably a key factor, the club decided to sell just a year before their centenary. Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila in the Limpopo province purchased Wits’ top flight status, though such is the fluid nature of clubs in the domestic game, we can expect to see Wits back at some point.

What I’m looking forward to in 2021

As mentioned earlier, if the Tokyo Olympics take place in 2021, it will be great to see how the South African men’s team perform on a global stage. The Olympics was the scene of one of the South African team’s greatest wins ever, in any age group, when they beat Brazil in Sydney in 2000, and should provide a fine platform for South Africa’s young talents to strut their stuff. It will also be interesting to see which overage players Notoane takes with him to Tokyo – could we see Percy Tau lighting up the Olympic stage in 2021?

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