South African football has always been gifted with top
quality goalkeepers since the national team was re-admitted into international
football in 1992. The country has seen a plethora of great shot stoppers and in
young Ronwen Williams, the trend of classy Bafana Bafana number ones is set to
continue.
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| Ronwen Williams: One for the future. |
Ronwen was born on January 21, 1992, a few months before South
Africa's first international encounter, where they took on Cameroon in Durban. He is
originally from Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape and is a product of the
famed Supersport United/Tottenham Hotspurs Academy.
The Supersport United keeper broke into his club's first
team during the 2010/11 season after joining the club as a 13 year old in 2005.
Since those early days, Williams has made the number 1 jersey at Matsatsantsa
his own, displacing the well-travelled and vastly experienced former Bafana
'keeper, Rowen Fernandez out of his position. United coach, Gavin Hunt has
shown a lot of faith in young Ronwen who has been described as a natural talent
with very good reflexes and a surprisingly calm nature for a young goalkeeper.
Williams won the Hot Young Player of the Year prize at
the PSL Awards at the end of his 1st full season in top flight football. He
beat off competition from Kaizer Chiefs' highly rated Lucky Baloyi for the
accolade. Williams counts Chelsea's Petr Cech as his hero and cites ex Bafana
'keepers Emille Baron and Fernandez as his mentors.
Williams has represented South Africa at under 20 level
and has been praised for his high work ethic. The current Bafana goal tender,
Itumeleng Khune, who, without doubt, will soon be battling against Williams
along with Wayne Sandilands and Moeneeb Josephs for the Bafana no.1 jersey, is
noted as saying he is "very impressed with what he has seen of Ronwen.”
Ronwen says of
himself: “I’m happy with my performance this season. But I need to improve, I
still have weaknesses. Like during the game when we are leading against Bidvest Wits at the weekend. I rush
to release the ball and I must not do that sometimes. But these things
come with experience and I will learn
from it game by game.”
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| Reflex Save: Williams denies Calvin Kadi |
Williams produced a Man-of-the-Match performance in their
1-1 draw against Bidvest Wits recently and
was pretty much the reason his team not
losing the match despite playing a sizeable chunk of the game with only
9 men on the pitch. He saved a penalty from Calvin Kadi late in the game and
made some top class saves which earned United a point.
After his recent performances there have been calls for
Ronwen to be included in Gordon Igesund’s plans for the upcoming AFCON
tournament on home soil and the qualifiers thereafter. “I’m always ready,” he
says. “I’ve been doing well for my team
and if I’m called to play for the country, I will honour that call up. However,
a call up to the national may come immediately but if his performances
continue, it is certain we will be seeing Ronwen Williams in national colours.
Bafana keepers since 1992:
Mark Anderson (1992-1997: 7 caps)
Steve Crowley (1993-1995:
20 caps)
Roger de Sa (1993:
1 cap)
Wade du Plessis (1994-1995: 2 caps)
Andre Arendse (1995-2004: 67 caps)
Brian Baloyi
(1997-2008: 24 caps)
Simon Gopane (1998: 1 cap)
Hans Vonk (1998-2005: 43 caps)
John Tlale (1999-2002: 8 caps)
Calvin Marlin (2002-2009: 16 caps)
Emile Baron (Debut: 2002- 6 caps)
Moneeb Josephs (2003-2012:
22 caps)
Wayne Roberts (2003: 1 cap)
Rowen Fernandez (Debut: 2003- 23 caps)
Thabang Radebe (2005: 1 cap)
Itumeleng Khune(2008-2012: 48 caps)
Wayne Sandilands (2011-2012: 2 caps)
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