Five of the best-ever Cosafa Cup players
Five of the best Cosafa Cup players
JOHANNESBURG, July 2 (ANA) – The Council of Southern African Football Associations (Cosafa) Cup has featured hordes of great players over the last 24 years, and ahead of the tournament starting next week in Nelson Mandela Bay, here is a look at five of the best ever from the tournament.
Fabrice Akwa was a stalwart of the Angolan side that competed in the early years of the Cosafa Cup, featuring in seven tournaments between 1998 and 2006.
He lifted the trophy twice, in 2001 and 2004, and remains the leading goal-scorer for his nation in the competition with five strikes.
Akwa was a star striker for Angola at the turn of the century, who turned out for Portuguese giants Benfica, among other overseas clubs. He scored a hat-trick against Mauritius in 2006 to go with goals in 2000 and 2001.
He also scored the winning goals in the qualifiers that sent Angola to their first-ever World Cup appearance in Germany 2006, and later played in Qatar before finishing his career with Petro Atlético at home.
He scored 38 goals in 78 international appearances for his country.
Kersley Appou was a stalwart of the early years of the Cosafa Cup with Mauritius, featuring in seven tournaments between 2000 and 2007, when he netted four goals.
No other player has scored more for the island nation in the competition and he was a feared forward in his day.
His international career actually stretched for 15 years as he only retired in 2014, by which time he had become the oldest African player to feature at the highest level when he turned out against Mauritania in an African Nations Cup qualifier at the age of 43 years and 354 days, beating the previous mark set by Cameroon great Roger Milla at the 1994 World Cup.
Brian Baloyi is a former goalkeeper who was a huge star with South African giants Kaizer Chiefs and Mamelodi Sundowns, as well as the national team.
He won 10 trophies in a glittering club career, but also had 12 years with the South African national side, which included appearances in the Cosafa Cup in 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2005, when he was captain.
Nicknamed ‘Spiderman’, he was one of the finest keepers of his generation and also won the African Cup Winners’ Cup with Chiefs in 2001. He played for AmaKhosi between 1993 and 2004, before leaving to join rivals Sundowns, where he played until 2010.
“The Cosafa Cup made a huge impact on me in terms of the international exposure I got, and also the chance to captain my country in the competition,” Baloyi says.
Siza Dlamini is a legend in eSwatini and played in nine Cosafa Cup tournaments between 1997 and 2007, missing out only in 2005 and 2006.
He netted the first goal in a famous 2-0 victory over Zimbabwe in 2002, and later that year also netted against South Africa, though eSwatini lost that game 4-1.
Dlamini also found the back of the net in a 2-0 win over Madagascar the following year.
He made his name at Mbabane Swallows in eSwatini, and played in South Africa for a number of clubs, most notably Lamontville Golden Arrows and Jomo Cosmos.
Ernest Mtawali was a stalwart of the early years of the Cosafa Cup and a creative genius for Malawi in many five victories.
A player with enormous talent, he had a successful career in South Africa, Argentina and France, and spent 17 years with the Malawi national team. Such was his ability that he joined Argentine side Newell’s Old Boys on the recommendation of Argentinean football legend Diego Maradona.
Mtawali has also served on the technical team of the Malawi national side in the recent past. – African News Agency (ANA), Editing by Michael Sherman
