The Winner Who Defied Death Fights for the Holy Grail

Neil Tovey is the only South African captain to lift an African Cup of Nations trophy. The former defender, who islucky to be alive, wants to revive the national team.

- Nick Said

The image of Neil Tovey standing alongside an elated President Nelson Mandela, and holding aloft the African Cup of Nations trophy in 1996, did not perhaps reverberate around the world like the one captured with Rugby World Cup-winning captain Francois Pienaar months earlier, but it remains an iconic moment in South African football and, sadly, a unique one.

South Africa had just won the 1996 Nations Cup on home soil and Mandela was tasked with handing the trophy to the winning captain, Tovey.

The joy on Mandela’s face was unbridled, for he too understood the significance of the moment that brought continental glory to a national side with the colors of the Rainbow Nation.

Twenty one years later, and it remains the only time a Bafana Bafana skipper has had that honor. It is with some sense of irony that the man tasked with changing this is Tovey himself.

Now the technical director of the South African Football Association (SAFA), Tovey is responsible for developing the infrastructure and environment to bring through the next generation of national stars to win glory as he did.

Tovey and Springbok captain Pienaar had a lot of similarities from their magical moment caught in time.

Both were very good players, though perhaps not the best the country had to offer in their positions at the time. But what they brought was skilled leadership and an insatiable hunger for the fight.

Tovey needed that fighting spirit after suffering two cardiac arrests. The second was in October 2016 and left him clinically dead for over two minutes before he was revived.

He was taking part in a charity cycle race and had already completed 42 kilometers when he collapsed.