Remember the Name: Ronwen Williams

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.

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.”

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)

What Next for Spurs?

Mawande says...

The managerial merry-go-round has been in full motion in the Barclays Premier League. While there have been some expected sackings in the form of Alex McLeish at Aston Villa, the more surprising ones have been those of Kenny Dalglish at Liverpool and to a greater extent Harry Redknapp at Tottenham.

Harry has been fantastic at Spurs. He proved that he was indeed a top quality manager. He built a solid team, taking them from the bottom of the league to challenging for Champions League positions. In total he oversaw three top 5 finishes in his four years at White Hart Lane. Whoever assumes Redknapp’s old job will have a tough task on his hands coz Uncle ‘Arry is gonna be a really hard act to follow.

'Arry: "See what you lot's gonna do wifout meh."

Firstly, Tottenham have to hire a top class manager and give him a lot of money to spend on new players. The charm of the Redknapp era was that Redknapp is a very popular football man and able to attract some very high quality signings at bargain prices like Rafael van der Vaart from Real Madrid at only 8 million pounds.  This was an underrated attribute of Harry’s and the next manager will have to be a top manager or else he will struggle to bring in signings that will excite the Tottenham fans. The only quality signings that Spurs will be able to attract will cost a lot of money and the board will have to arm the new manager with an inordinate amount of money during the off season.

Harry Redknapp’s departure from Tottenham will put a smile on the faces of the vultures who have been circling around Tottenham’s best players. Playmaker Luka Modric was courted by Chelsea for a while last European summer and Manchester United has been touted as a possible destination for him this time around. Other players who could see their way out are Gareth Bale who continues to raw the attention of Barcelona and Real Madrid as well as van der Vaart who has been linked with a move to Schalke. The future of Emmanuel Adebayor at Spurs will also be thrown in doubt. The squad as a whole will probably receive a major shake up. Who know s what the next manager will feel about 41 year old Brad Friedel, someone who Redknapp brought in just a year ago, being the number 1 keeper at the club. And what of the chronically injured Ledley King who has was rated highly by Harry and given every opportunity to play when fit. A lot of futures will be on the line at Tottenham. It will also be interesting to see what happens to the players that Harry Redknapp moulded into world beaters such as Sandro, Benoit Essou-Akoto and Kyle Walker.

I, for one, think that Harry Redknapp’s exit was a tad premature. He seems like someone who was largely popular at the club and I don’t think there will be too many players who will be happy to see the back of him. With Redknapp’s sacking in mind, I also don’t think Tottenham will reach the lofty heights that they did under him. I also foresee a mass exodus of players who signed for Tottenham largely because of Redknapp’s influence and the opportunity to work with him. The reality of it is that Tottenham aren’t a big club and with Redknapp they were able to punch well above their weight and unless big money comes into the picture, it is something they won’t be able to do for much longer. Depending on which side of the window you’re staring into, the future either looks very interesting or very scary for Tottenham.