The COSAFA Castle Cup will be headlined this year by the appearance of six legends of competitions past, players who have written their names into folklore of Southern African football through their exploits in the regional championship.
The six are the true embodiment of the belief that the COSAFA Castle Cup is a vital platform for the development of players in the region, and truly a competition ‘Where Legends are Brewed’.
They will lend their support to the teams that compete in the five-a-side Best Brew League competition that gives ordinary players the chance to showcase their talent on the pitch and represent their country at the regional finals that will be held in South Africa’s North West province on July 8 & 9.
It is a new innovation from Castle Lager this year, with the intention to show the value of friendships and how football is to be enjoyed together, making memories that will last a lifetime.
“I am very excited about the league,” Botswana legend Dipsy Selolwane says. “Fans and followers of the Beautiful Game will get a chance to represent their countries through the Best Brew League and have a real experience of what COSAFA has been giving elite players. It is a great league to make friends and start new friendships.”
For every one of the COSAFA Castle Cup Legends, the senior tournament holds a special memory for them, and it is fair to say most of not have achieved the success they have without it. That includes Selolwane, who scored a goal against South Africa in the 1999 tournament that is still remembered today.
“My legacy was solidified on that day, even though I was still a young boy. To score against Spiderman [Brian Baloyi] was memorable,” Selolwane says. “I remember it was a corner-kick, the ball was half-cleared, it came to me, I controlled it. [Matthew] Booth and [Fabian] McCarthy came to close me down and, I don’t know, I just tried this crazy move.
“I turned and shot, it deflected off someone and went in. It was rainy, it was a packed stadium, even today people remind me of that goal and I thank COSAFA and Castle Lager for the opportunity because I don’t believe my career would have turned out the way it had without the opportunity the tournament gave me.”
Former Zimbabwe international midfielder, who would spend a decade at South African giants Kaizer Chiefs, says the COSAFA Castle Cup gave the teams exposure they would not ordinarily receive.
“It’s still an opportunity for the best talent to be discovered. There are not many scouts who usually travel to a country like Zimbabwe. When we are playing international football most are just watching on TV,” Nengomasha says.
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“And many eyes are on West Africa in any event, as they dominate the number of players who go to Europe each year. So for teams like Swaziland, Lesotho and Zimbabwe, it is good that the COSAFA Castle Cup gets the exposure it does.”
His abiding memory came not from a game Zimbabwe won, but rather one they lost, to Swaziland in 2002, but he says it speaks volumes of the competitiveness of the competition.
“I was sitting on the bench for that match against Swaziland [that was lost 2-0]! But the competitiveness was very high, you would think that a so-called small team [like Swaziland] would really struggle coming to Bulawayo.
“I mean, that Zimbabwe team had [current coach] Norman Mapeza coming from Turkey, even Peter [Ndlovu] was there, so it was shocking. But it was amazing how much Swaziland were running and how willing they were to compete.”
Lehlohonolo Seema was a stalwart defender for Lesotho for a decade and he knows full well how the COSAFA Castle Cup shaped his career.
“It has been one of the pillars for players from the region down the years, especially players who won a move to big leagues, and I include South Africa in that because it was at a time the only league on TV,” Seema says.
“Players from Lesotho … a lot of guys that were able to play outside of the country did so because they were spotted in the COSAFA Castle Cup. I think in the beginning we did not recognise what this tournament could do for us.”
Former Swaziland striker Siza Dlamini was still at school when he first featured in the COSAFA Castle Cup, but delivered the kind of performances that would go on to make him famous through the region.
“I remember I scored twice again Lesotho and once against Madagascar. The COSAFA Castle Cup helped me a lot in my career, when I first played in the competition I was still at school and very young,” Dlamini says. “People from Swaziland were complaining, saying the national team is not a “school team”, but fortunately enough when I was given a chance, I delivered. I proved a lot of people wrong.”
Former Zambia national team striker Rotson Kilambe won the Man of the Match award in his very first COSAFA Castle Cup appearance in 1998 and bagged the winning goal against Zimbabwe to take Chipolopolo to the trophy that year.
“It was an opportunity to put myself on the map and I knew that if I took it, things could change for me very quickly,” Kilambe says. That is the power of the COSAFA Castle Cup, it can change fortunes for players in an instant and still does so today.”
Brian Baloyi had the honour of captaining South Africa in the 2005 COSAFA Castle Cup, where he led a young team just making their way in the international game.
“It was a responsibility for me because I could see these young players had a lot of talent and I knew this was a great opportunity to show that to the world,” Baloyi says. “I remember Katlego Mphela scored three goals in what were just his first two international appearances and look at the career he went on to have, scoring at the World Cup. But it all started for him at the COSAFA Castle Cup.”
