Soccer legend Jantjies mourned

Reggie Jantjies could have played for a South African national team or a club in Europe in the 1980s‚ former teammates have said.

The 1980s and early 1990s Cape Town Spurs and Hellenic midfield legend died in a Cape Town hospital week.

Bidvest Wits coach Gavin Hunt was a long-time teammate of Jantjies at Hellenic‚ and a friend. “I played a lot with him,” Hunt said, who described him as “a social guy, great guy”.

“It’s a big shock. It’s very sad. He’d been struggling for some time now with his diabetes and had to have his leg amputated about two months ago.”

Jantjies was one of several players who crossed over from the old coloured and Indian Federation Professional League to the then mainly white Hellenic in the mid-1980s.

Hunt said Jantjies could have competed for a place in a national team, even in SA soccer’s star-studded 1980s.

“Ja‚ I think so‚” the Wits coach said. “Because‚ you know‚ he had good pedigree.”

Jantjies returned to a Spurs competing in the top flight with the funding of Cape businessman David Rodwell in the 1990s‚ but missed their National Soccer League title-winning season in 1995 under Mich d’Avray.

Another Hellenic teammate, David Byrne, said Jantjies could have made it in Europe had it not been for the sports boycott.

“He was coaching youngsters at the University of Stellenbosch for the last few years.” –