Williams on the cusp of history
With the curtain about to fall on the PSL season, we look at the stars who shone
● The 2023-2024 DStv Premiership has seen a number of South African players raising their game, especially in 2024 — a year that started with Bafana Bafana finishing third at the Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast.
Shining Stars
Ronwen Williams looks set to follow in the footsteps of South Africa’s great glovemen — Andre Arendse and Itumeleng Khune — by winning the coveted PSL’s Player of the Season award, which has been scooped by 25 infield players in 27 PSL seasons.
Williams has helped Sundowns win the DStv Premiership for a record seventh successive time.
Few can dismiss Bafana’s skipper in following Themba Zwane, Peter Shalulile [twice in a row] and Teboho Mokoena, to be the fourth Sundowns player to win the award in the last five seasons.
The last time a goalkeeper won the accolade was at the end of the 2012-2013 season when Khune and Kaizer Chiefs were still a force in South African football. In that campaign Khune conceded 21 goals and Chiefs finished five points clear of Soweto rivals Orlando Pirates.
Bafana Bafana legend Arendse, who propelled Santos to the league title in 2001-2002 season, was a pioneer who paved the way for Khune and Williams. They followed Arendse not only as Bafana No 1 but became great assets for their respective clubs.
My bet is that Williams, 32, will win the award under a different era where goalkeepers are no longer judged by the stupendous saves they make during a season, but by their overall contribution to the team’s play and success.
With 14 clean sheets, including nine in a row, and only conceding six goals in 19 league matches, Williams is head and shoulders above the rest. He only conceded more than one goal in a league game during a controversial 2-2 draw against Moroka Swallows.
Williams’ role at Sundowns cannot be viewed only by the number of clean sheets.
Modern football demands that goalkeepers become part and parcel of initiating attacks and coming out as early as possible when there’s danger. Williams has been the best of the pick in that regard, an aspect that distinguishes him from Khune and Arendse, who won the award for their shot-stopping prowess.
Pirates’ Patrick Maswanganyi is worth a mention for players that may come second to Williams for this season’s Player of the Season. Maswanganyi’s five goals and five assists shows how tremendous and influential he’s been in his debut season with Bucs.
That Pirates may repeat their last season’s feat by finishing second to Sundowns may be due to Maswanganyi’s efforts in trying to get his team to score as many goals as possible.
Stellies’ impressive challenge for second spot
If Gavin Hunt (2001-2002) and Benni McCarthy (2020-2021) could be chosen as PSL’s Coach of the Season without actually winning the league title, surely Steve Barker will feel he has a shout for the 2023-2024 season.
In 2002, Hunt got the gong for helping Black Leopards to an eighth place finish in what was the now 59-year-old’s early years of top flight coaching.
McCarthy was also a greenhorn in coaching when he spearheaded AmaZulu to finish second in 2021. Now a striker’s coach at Manchester United, McCarthy bagged the award ahead of Rulani Mokwena and Manqoba Mngqithi who had delivered the league for the first time as co-coaches at Sundowns.
Barker, now a veteran in South African coaching, has done the same as McCarthy and may be worth the nod ahead of Mokwena who has been brilliant in clinching a seventh league title in a row for Sundowns without a loss in 26 matches.
Mokwena will bolster his chances should he become the first PSL coach to end the season undefeated.