February 2024. Charles Konan Barry Stadium in Yamoussoukro, Cote d’Ivoire. Ronwen Williams has kept Cape Verde at bay over the course of 120 hard-fought minutes in an Africa Cup of Nations quarter-final but the best is yet to come.
South Africa goalkeeper and captain Williams dives to his right to save the first kick from Bebe, keeping watch as the ball threatens to squirm underneath him. Next up for Cape Verde is Willy Semedo, with Williams going the same way and pulling off another save.
After South Africa score one of their first two, Laros Duarte steps up and tries to bring Cape Verde level. He looks to have found the corner, only for a big right hand from Williams to deny him.
The Bafana Bafana lead 2-1 on spot-kicks when Patrick Andrade becomes the fourth opposition player to see their kick pushed aside by Williams. His four stops in one shoot-out (not including sudden-death) is a tournament record which may never be beaten.
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Williams’ efforts might have put him on the map for some football fans outside his home country but those who know him well were less surprised. “[Even as a teenager] he had a reputation for being a very good goalkeeper but also very studious,” South African journalist Melissa Reddy, who knew Williams when he began his professional career with SuperSport United, told Mirror Football.
“If analysts or his goalkeeping coach were to provide him with information in terms of even refining his technique, his agility, any bit of information he received he'd properly dive on it. And he just studies penalty shootouts in general. So [if] the Champions League is being played, he'll watch what takers do, what keepers do.
“He started to really focus in on things like are the opposition trying to give him the eyes or... If they have a usual technique or a usual style, do they do something before taking the penalty if they're going to change it?
“Because footballers are creatures of habit. They're very routine. And even if they are going to do something that's not in their routine, there's usually a giveaway.”
Preparation has always been key for goalkeepers but when you break down the numbers behind a shoot-out it becomes that much more stark, as broadcaster Richie Driss - writer, producer and presenter of The Special 1 documentary - told us. “Put it like this, the science behind penalties shows that on average, it takes 500 milliseconds for the ball, when struck, to go from the penalty spot to cross the goal line. It takes again, on average, 200 milliseconds for the eyes to react to the movement of the ball, and approximately 350 milliseconds for the goalkeeper to dive whichever way they're going to dive,” he said.
“Already, the pure science is stacked against goalkeepers when it comes to reacting to a penalty being struck. So they always have to go on what they are now continuing to do, which is an absolute ton of research.
“This is why we see water bottles with the names of penalty takers written on them and all of the research and memorisation of the players' techniques when it comes to taking penalties, the way that they prefer to go, their body movement. Their hips are the key to deciding which way they're going to strike the ball, and having to read all of that and decide in milliseconds whether they're going to stick or twist to the side makes it nigh on impossible.”
Williams’ exploits saw him nominated for the Yashin Trophy - the award for that year’s best goalkeeper - at the 2024 Ballon d’Or ceremony. The 34-year-old was the only African keeper in that year’s top 10 and the first-ever African-based stopper to be nominated for the honour.
“I think what's interesting with Ronwen Williams is he's very atypical to what people would consider a goalkeeper from Africa,” Reddy continued. “There's a stigma and a reputation that African goalkeepers are a bit wild and crazy and unpredictable… but Ronwen is, and always has been, very calm.
“He’s very assured, very quietly confident in his ability, but also incredibly, incredibly studious. The amount of effort he puts into refining even the smallest areas of his game is incredible and it was a bit surprising that he actually wasn't tapped up by a European club.
“I think [how African keepers are perceived] counted against him [and also] the fact that he's not really a massive personality in terms of courting PR or he doesn't push himself in the media. He's quite a reserved guy. It's easy to get scouted or to get a move if you're playing in Spain, right? It's a lot more difficult if you are playing for one of the African nations.”
Driss doesn't see an obvious solution to the reputation of African goalkeepers in the eyes of a footballing landscape where Europe continues to dominate in a number of areas but he does remain hopeful of change. He points to stand-out players impressing but failing to move the dial - from Algeria keeper Rais M'Bolhi at the 2014 World Cup to Senegal stopper Edouard Mendy at Chelsea - while high-profile struggles like Cameroon's Andre Onana have tipped the balance the other way.
”It doesn't help that Andre Onana came to Manchester United, was erratic, and it cost him his place,” he said. ”I think he should have been given more time because I think there is the makings of a brilliant goalkeeper in there, as he proved in his Champions League run getting to the final with Inter Milan and with Ajax as well. I just think that the weight of the Manchester United shirt wore too heavily on him.”
He continued: ”M'Bolhi in 2014 got Algeria out of the group, he was absolutely superb, and I think Williams just has to play his game and not play the occasion. One thing is for sure is that he is going to be very, very busy, so it is a chance for him to showcase himself.”
Europe’s loss has been South Africa’s gain, though. Williams spent more than a decade with SuperSport United and - when it came time to leave - stayed in his home country with Mamelodi Sundowns.
He won league titles in each of his first two seasons with his current side and kept two clean sheets as Mamelodi Sundowns gave a solid account of themselves at the 2025 Club World Cup. A World Cup challenge against Mexico, South Korea and Czech Republic is unlikely to faze a man who has already overcome so much.
The keeper has had to deal with family tragedy on the long path to a World Cup which will serve as the pinnacle of his career. He was just 10 years old when his cousin was shot dead while working as a security guard, while in 2010 - just months before South Africa hosted the tournament - Williams’ brother Marvin died in a car accident.
Williams was still a teenager at the time and the loss led him to consider his future in the game. Instead of walking away, though, he decided to push to reach the top of his game in Marvin’s memory. During that shoot-out against Cape Verde, he was seen looking up to the sky and talking to his late brother, something which gave him the inspiration to step up and become a hero.
”Sometimes I ask him to take control and show me which way to go. He’s like my guardian angel,” Williams told The Observer in 2024.
“That was probably the lowest time in my life. I lost the passion I had because he was probably my biggest supporter. It took months for me to love the game again.
“My whole family tried to talk me out of [stopping playing] but I was convinced that was it. Then the coach said that whatever I do in my career from now on I should do it for my brother and there was a change in my mindset.”
He has now lived nearly half his life without Marvin around but he's done a great service to his sibling, not just through his achievements but also how he approaches the game. While some captains can be firm-handed in their approach to junior team-mates, that’s not the case with Williams.
“He's not in the slightest way aggressive, not egotistical, not needing to throw his weight around,” Reddy said. “He doesn't even use the seniority aspect.
“He's a very intuitive captain. He can sense when somebody needs an arm around their shoulder but he knows when some players respond better to having a fire lit under them and he's capable of doing that, not in an aggressive way.
“His team-mates absolutely absolutely adore him because he leads with grace and they like him for that. His leadership sets the tone for that team and has become a huge part of Bafana Bafana's identity.”
Williams’ leadership style goes hand-in-hand with the increased professionalism in the South Africa camp since current manager Hugo Broos took over in 2021. Broos, a former Belgian international player, will be 74 when the World Cup starts and has already revealed this will be his final tournament before retiring from coaching.
The research and analysis which helped Williams put his own skills at the forefront in that AFCON shoot-out are only part of it. The veteran boss has also built a squad of players willing to fight for the collective and not let egos get in the way.
South Africa haven’t reached the World Cup since 2010, when they hosted the tournament. Many members of the current squad were children at the time - or just about to start their professional careers - and in a way they have been shaped not just by that tournament but also by the three successive failures to qualify before finally sealing a return in 2026.
“When the World Cup draw happened and it was Mexico vs South Africa for the opener, so many of the players messaged me,” Reddy added. “Because they all remember Siphiwe Tshabalala's goal [against Mexico in 2010],
“People in South Africa can recite the commentary word for word and replicate the dance at the corner flag. It's such a seminal moment and I think it's actually so poetic that this group of players gets the opportunity to have that match as their opener because they can draw a lot from the spirit of how Bafana played in that opening game.
“That was really considered the golden age of South African football at the time because of how much talent was in that team. Siphiwe Tshabalala, Itumeleng Khune, Teko Modise.
“But this group of players, while they don't have maybe as stellar names and they're not as worshipped or there's no real headliners that the country are obsessed with as there was in the past but their strength is actually the collective. They're a much better footballing unit, they're technically and tactically very very savvy, there's no egos, everybody is equal.
“The whole culture and mentality around this team is different. They all watched the 2010 World Cup opener and I think it's inspirational for them to now go and have that same fixture, but I think they will expect a lot better from themselves than what the country delivered in 2010.”
As was the case in 2010, all eyes will be on South Africa when they kick off the World Cup against Mexico. If they’re to go further than they did that year, Ronwen Williams will surely be a big part of it.
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