Moeneeb Josephs

Moeneeb Josephs
Personal information
Full name Moeneeb Josephs[1]
Date of birth (1980-05-19) 19 May 1980 (age 44)
Place of birth Cape Town, South Africa
Height 1.84 m (6 ft 0 in)
Position(s) Goalkeeper
Youth career
Westdale
Westridge Rovers
Cape Town Spurs
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1997–1999 Cape Town Spurs 21 (0)
1999–2006 Ajax Cape Town 115 (0)
2006–2008 Wits University 55 (0)
2008–2013 Orlando Pirates 103 (0)
2013–2018 Bidvest Wits 95 (0)
2018–2019 AmaZulu 19 (0)
Total 408 (0)
International career‡
2003–2014 South Africa 24 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 15 June 2018
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 22 May 2012

Moeneeb Josephs (pronounced Muh'Neeb; born 19 May 1980) is a retired South African professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.

Club career

Josephs began his career with Cape Town Spurs at the age of 17 in 1997 and played for its successor Ajax Cape Town for seven years. In 2006, he moved to Gauteng where he played for Bidvest Wits for two years before moving to Orlando Pirates for a record-breaking fee.

International career

Josephs has played at international level for South Africa national team and was South Africa's number one goalkeeper at the 2008 African Cup of Nations replacing the injured Rowen Fernandez.

He did not make the final squad for the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup, but earned selection to the squad for the 2010 FIFA World Cup at Fernandez's expense. He was not expected to see much playing time as back-up to Itumeleng Khune, but on 16 June 2010 he was called on as a 79th-minute substitute for Steven Pienaar following Khune's sending-off against Uruguay. Josephs was powerless to stop the resultant penalty from Diego Forlán as Bafana Bafana lost the match 3–0 with two goals from Forlan and a stoppage-time strike from Álvaro Pereira.[2] Khune's suspension meant that Josephs played in South Africa's final group game against France, where they won 2–1 but were eliminated from the World Cup.

On 24 May 2012, he announced his retirement from international football.[3]

He was called back after two years by Gordon Igesund for CHAN 2014 hosted in South Africa and he played a full match in final group stage against Nigeria in 3–1 defeat in a place of injured Itumeleng Khune. That was his final game for Bafana and he was personally criticized together with Lerato Chabangu for a loss against Nigeria by Minister of Sport and Recreation Fikile Mbalula, when he said "Bafana Bafana are week, useless and they are the bunch of losers individual"."[4]

Personal life

Josephs hails from Mitchell's Plain on the Cape Flats. Josephs is Muslim.

References

  1. ^ "FIFA World Cup South Africa 2010: List of Players" (PDF). FIFA. 4 June 2010. p. 28. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 June 2010. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
  2. ^ "South Africa 0-3 Uruguay". news.bbc.co.uk.
  3. ^ "Moeneeb Josephs retires from South African national team". goal.com.
  4. ^ Molefe, Mazola (21 January 2014). "A bunch of losers". Times Live. Retrieved 16 March 2020.