Shalulile approaches third Golden Boot Award
The Lesley Manyathela Golden Boot winner is headed for yet another familiar edition of disappointments as the DSTV premiership winds down to the stage of the season.
With clubs having around five fixtures remaining, Shalulile remains the leading scorer with 11 goals in the league.IfShalulilemaintainshis place at the top of goalscoring charts, the Namibian will become first ever player in history of modern-day PSL to clinch the consecutive top scorer award.
The Namibian was the deserving winner of the award last season with 23 goals, just short by two goals of matching Collins Mbesuma long standing haul of 25 strikes.
Shalulile has won the league top score twice, with his first coming in 2019/20 season when he was a joint top-scorer with then Orlando Pirates striker Gabadinho Mhango on 16 goals. He added his second last term.
However, this season, the competition for the award is turning into drab affair with the winner unlikely to reach a 20-goal mark.
Since the league was trimmed down to 16 teams (30-goals per campaign) at the start of the 2002/03 season, the 20-goal mark has been only on three occasions by Collins Mbesuma (252003/04) Siyabonga Nomvete (20- 2011/12) and Shalulile (23- 2021/22).
The lowest winning tally was 10 by Bernard Parker in 2013/14 season and winning figures through the years have been 11, 13, 14,15 and 16 with
17-19 only reached on four occasions.
As Shalulile leads this season, he is followed by Supersports’s Bradley Grobler
(10) Ranga Chivariro (Marumo Gallant), Ighodaro (Chippa
United) Monnapule Saleng (Orlando Pirates) and Cassius Mailula (Mamelodi Sundowns) who are all on nine goals.
Khanyisa Mayo (Cape Town City) has eight goals while on seven is the pair of Bonfils -Caleb Bimenyimana (Kaizer Chiefs and Djakaridja Traore (TS Galaxy).
They are not famously known or referred to as the last line of defence by pure incident; goalkeepers are often made fun of and brutally taken for granted as just objects that are there to prevent the opposition from scoring goals. However, net guards form an integral part of the beautiful game of football; hence this is the only position that must be occupied at all times.
Tellingly, whereas proceedings can get underway without any of the other allotted slots necessarily having tenants, the number one position must have an occupant as no football match is permitted by law and rules governing the game to start without the goalkeeper.
As it stands, modern football requires skilful ball-playing goalkeepers capable of initiating play from the back with ball distribution a primary pre-requisite.
Back in the day at the dawn of mixed-race football in apartheid South West Africa (SWA), a tallish goalie going by the name of Jeff Marting, was by a decent yard way ahead of his peers when it came down to the flawless execution of basics.
Brave, fearless and confidently dominant in aerial duels, without a shadow of a doubt, Marting was a phenomenal shot-stopper who certainly ticked all the boxes of a complete net guard. The now-retired former Ramblers’ goalkeeper also represented his native land South West Africa in the prestigious South African Inter-Provincial Currie Cup.