19 November 2024 – Over a decade ago, Ronwen Williams endured a frustrating night as he made his Bafana Bafana debut against Brazil at FNB Stadium in Johannesburg.
On that fateful day, 5 March 2014, Williams had to pick up the ball from the back of the net five times as the hosts lost 5-0 to the Samba Boys in a friendly international. Fast forward to 2024 and Williams, who’s now the Bafana Bafana captain and a revered figure on the continent and the globe, has turned things around and proven that sometimes it’s not how you start but how you finish.
The 32-year-old will run out for the 50th time in senior national team colours if he is selected when Bafana Bafana clash against South Sudan at the DHL Cape Town Stadium this evening (18H00) in a qualifier for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations.
Currently on 49 caps, after featuring for coach Hugo Broos’ side in Kampala against Uganda last week, Williams will join an elite club. Since South Africa’s re-admission to international football in 1992, there have been 29 players with 50 caps or more, including former captain Neil Tovey, who was the first player to achieve this feat when Bafana lost 1-2 to France away on 11 October 1997 during a friendly international.
The other Bafana Bafana players to reach half a century include John ‘Shoes’ Moshoeu and Phil Masinga, who are both late.
Lucas Radebe, Mark Fish, current Bafana Bafana assistant coach Helman Mkhalele, Shaun Bartlett, Andre Arendse, Doctor Khumalo, Aaron Mokoena, Siphiwe Tshabalala, Itumeleng Khune, and more recently, Themba Zwane, are also some of the names on the elite list.
Williams, who hails from Gqeberha in the Eastern Cape, has shone in Bafana Bafana colours, which has led to international recognition. Just recently he was nominated for the 2024 Ballon d’Or Yashin Trophy, which recognizes the best goalkeepers in the world, and in doing so, he became the first goalkeeper ever to be nominated while playing for an African club, Mamelodi Sundowns.
He was voted the Goalkeeper of the Tournament as Bafana Bafana claimed third place at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, which was hosted by Ivory Coast. To cap off a great 2024, Williams is also nominated for the African Player of the Year award, ahead of the CAF awards on 16 December 2024 in Marrakech, Morocco.
Williams is currently the most experienced player in the Bafana Bafana team that is certainly going places, and with Williams leading by example, this is a team capable of making the nation proud.
He is definitely a long way from that match against Brazil, a game he maintains he’s used to motivate himself over the years. Congratulations Ronza.
