Benedict Vilakazi (born 9 August 1982 in

Soweto Soweto () is a township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for ''South Western Townships''. Formerly a s ...

Gauteng Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana languages means 'place of gold'. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only ...

) is a retired

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

football (soccer) Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

player who last played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

Botswana Meat Commission The Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) is a non-profit body which was established by the government of the newly-independent Botswana in 1965. Its main functions are the buying, slaughtering, processing, and marketing of all beef and beef products with ...

Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label=Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalahar ...

. He was noted as one of the smallest professional international footballers during his time (standing at a mere 1.57 m) but made up for this with a strong physical presence. He was born in

Diepkloof Diepkloof is a large zone of Soweto township in the Gauteng province of South Africa. It is also sometimes referred to as Diepmeadow, if considered as a single township with the nearby Meadowlands, Gauteng, Meadowlands (although there is Orlando, ...

and is nicknamed "Tso" and "Little Napoleon" due to his leading skills.

Career

Vilakaz played for

at the

2006 African Nations Cup The 2006 Africa Cup of Nations was the 25th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the association football championship of Africa. It was hosted by Egypt. Just like in 2004, the field of sixteen teams was split into four groups of four. Egypt won ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

. His professional career was rocked by sex scandals with juveniles including being dragged to court on allegation of

statutory rape In common law jurisdictions, statutory rape is nonforcible sexual activity in which one of the individuals is below the age of consent (the age required to legally consent to the behavior). Although it usually refers to adults engaging in sexual ...

. He was however acquitted of the charge as it was alleged that it was with consent. The complainant has since given birth to his son. He publicly apologised to soccer fans after his acquittal. The sex scandal also prohibited him going through with his move to the Swedish side

Djurgården Djurgården ( or ) or, more officially, ''Kungliga Djurgården'' (), is an island in central Stockholm, Sweden. Djurgården is home to historical buildings and monuments, museums, galleries, the amusement park Gröna Lund, the open-air museum ...

that was supposed to go through right before the scandal hit. On 27 July 2007, he was transferred to

Danish Superliga The Danish Superliga ( da, Superligaen, ) is the current Danish football championship tournament, and administered by the Danish Football Association. It is the highest football league in Denmark and is currently contested by 12 teams each yea ...

club

Aalborg BK Aalborg Boldspilklub is a Danish sports club based in the city of Aalborg. The club is also known as AaB for short (cf. logo) or Aalborg BK. Through time the club has had branches in cricket, tennis, ice hockey, handball, and basketball, but curre ...

. He was given a 5-year contract. Due to sickness he had not adjusted to the European style of football, and therefore he played only a few games in the Danish league. Vilakazi returned to South Africa July 2008, signing a contract with Pretoria-based Mamelodi Sundowns, where he was also joined by former

FC Copenhagen Football Club Copenhagen ( da, Football Club København, ), commonly known as FC København, FC Copenhagen, Copenhagen or simply FCK, is a professional Danish football club in Copenhagen, Denmark. FCK was founded in 1992 as a superstructure on ...

striker

Sibusiso Zuma Sibusiso Wiseman Zuma (born 23 June 1975) is a South African former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football), forward or midfielder. Club career Early career Born in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, Z ...

. After not making an impact at Sundowns, Vilakazi was loaned out to Mpumalanga Black Aces for the 2010–11 PSL season. However, Vilakazi had a fallout with Black Aces' management due to missing several training sessions and other disciplinary problems. Consequently, the Sundowns did not renew his contract after its expiration at the end of the 2010–11 season. Vilakazi had short spells at

Black Leopards Black Leopards FC is a South African football club based in Thohoyandou, Vhembe Region, Limpopo that plays in the National First Division. History The club was founded in 1983 by business people in the Vhembe Region. In 1998 the club was tak ...

and in

Swaziland Eswatini ( ; ss, eSwatini ), officially the Kingdom of Eswatini and formerly named Swaziland ( ; officially renamed in 2018), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by Mozambique to its northeast and South Africa to its no ...

with

Malanti Chiefs Malanti Chiefs is a Eswatini soccer club based in Piggs Peak. Achievements *Swazi Cup: 1 :: 2008. Performance in CAF competitions *CAF Confederation Cup: 1 appearance ::2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The verti ...

before moving to

Botswana Premier League The Botswana Premier League, currently known as the BTC Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the highest level football league in Botswana. Organised by the Botswana Football Association, the league was formed in 1978 to replace the pre-indep ...

team

Notwane FC Notwane FC is a football club from Botswana based in Gaborone. It is named after the Notwane River. Notwane is owned by GMG Global Investments, a subsidiary of GMG Holdings and recently made major scoop by signing former South African internat ...

in July 2013. In November 2013, he terminated his contract with Notwane after not receiving his salary and signing-on fee, and joined

on a one-year contract., Tso remains the highest scorer of all time for Orlando Pirates, with 52 goals. Tso had a stint as the head coach of

Orange Vaal Professionals Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...

, a team campaigning in the

ABC Motsepe league ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

, the 3rd tier of South African Football.

References

External links

* at

Danmarks Radio DR (), officially the Danish Broadcasting Corporation in English, is a Danish public-service radio and television broadcasting company. Founded in 1925 as a public-service organization, it is Denmark's oldest and largest electronic media enterp ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vilakazi, Benedict 1982 births Living people Sportspeople from Soweto Zulu people South African soccer players South African expatriate soccer players South Africa international soccer players 2006 Africa Cup of Nations players Orlando Pirates F.C. players AaB Fodbold players Expatriate footballers in Denmark Danish Superliga players Association football midfielders Mpumalanga Black Aces F.C. players Mamelodi Sundowns F.C. players Black Leopards F.C. players Expatriate footballers in Eswatini South African expatriate sportspeople in Eswatini Notwane F.C. players Gilport Lions F.C. players Expatriate footballers in Botswana South African expatriate sportspeople in Botswana