Over the years the Mother City has produced top- class goalkeepers for the South African national teams and PSL clubs.
You can go down the list of many of the accomplished SA national teams from youth to senior level, you’ll find a lot of keepers who were cooked here.
From Afcon 96 winner Andre Arendse to Wayne Roberts, who Sir Alex Ferguson praised as a top talent on his visit to Mzansi, the list is endless.
Currently we’ve had Cape Town Spurs’ Lincoln Vyver flying the flag for the Cape as part of the exciting national U23s and played a key role to help when Bafana won the Cosafa Cup a year ago.
There are many out there but I might run out of space if I go down the list of all of them.
And then there’s the next-in-liners, the Mother City’s future stars.
Gennaro Johnson, 15, at Ikamva is the latest goalkeeping sensation vannie Kaap.
While the first team was putting in the work ahead of this weekend’s SAS Cup at Ikamva, Cape Town Spurs’ youth stars were making headlines with the SA U17 team Amajimbos at the Region 5 Games in Lilongwe, Malawi.
Under the leadership of Cape legend and Spurs’ own Duncan Crowie, Amajimbos registered the tournament’s biggest victory beating the Seychelles 11-0 on their way to reaching the final, while conceding just three goals, and qualified for the U17 Afcon where that will be played in Algeria in April next year.
It was no surprise that the top scorer and Player of the Tournament award went to Siyabonga Mabena and Spurs’ 15-year-old youth goalkeeper Johnson was named the Goalkeeper of the Tournament.
The SA U17 girls Basetsana were also doing the business, going one better than their male counterparts by winning the tournament and also achieving qualification.
They also registered the tournament’s biggest victory against Namibia together with hosts Malawi, beating them 12-0 and conceding just four goals.
Between the sticks for the South African girls was none other than local girl Shifaa Hoosen - something that makes one of the Cape’s greatest goalkeepers and coaches Farouk Abrahams proud.
Abrahams tells the Daily Voice at the recent all-women’s goalkeeper coaching workshop hosted by his academy: “They [Johnson and Hoosen] were both here working with me since they were young.
“Gennaro’s dad cut his goalkeeeper coaching teeth right here at FAGA (Farouk Abrahams Goalkeeping Academy) and has done a brilliant job as the young man’s personal trainer…”
While Abrahams will undoubtedly be holding thumbs that the young stars will make it to the big time, the rest of the Mother City and South Africa will be watching with bated breath.