Bafana back where they belong

I CAN still recall my first reaction to hearing the official 2010 Fifa World Cup song — and, incidentally, it's the same reaction I have to it now.

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A fierce grimace befalls my face whenever I hear Waka Waka by Shakira, even though I’ve been told multiple times that it’s the best of the theme tunes and a banger of a song.

Ican only shrug my shoulders and wonder why it was that a Colombian — from a country roughly 11 000km away and very much not on the African continent — was chosen to sing a song about Africa and its first Fifa World Cup.

Thank goodness Freshlyground were in the studio next to Shakira when she recorded it — or so the legend goes; they are the true saviours of 2010.

I suppose it’s also the now-old rocker in me that still rages against that song.

I hope Bad Bunny, whoever he might be, gets to sing the next theme of the 2026 World Cup ... I'm sure that'll go down a treat in Canada and Mexico, but particularly in the US. At least he’s from the latter, even though Puerto Rico seems a long way off to many Americans.

Ah, yes, 2010 — a showpiece event that promised so much, only for the goodwill and progress to be squandered in subsequent years by politicians and administrators. It was glorious ... what a time to be alive.