Theophilus "Doctor" Doctorson Khumalo (born 26 June 1967), also known as Doctor Khumalo, is a South African former
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. He is best known for being a star
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
Kaizer Chiefs
Kaizer Chiefs Football Club (often known as Chiefs) are a South African professional football club based in Naturena, Johannesburg South, that plays in the Premier Soccer League. The team is nicknamed ''AmaKhosi'', which means "Lords" or "Chie ...
as well as the
South African national team
South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west.
Etymology
The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz' ...
.
Career
Having started playing soccer in 1984 with Swallows Reserves, Khumalo then went to Kaizer Chiefs, where he initially played for the junior team. His father,
Eliakim Khumalo
Elkiam Khumalo (1940 – 27 August 1996) was a South African football midfielder who played for Moroka Swallows and Kaizer Chiefs. He was shot during a hijacking in 1996. He is the father of Doctor Khumalo.
Club career
Khumalo played for Mo ...
, a renowned player of the 1970s and early 1980s, served as his mentor. Khumalo was promoted to the senior team by coach
Ted Dumitru
Theodore "Ted" Dumitru (born Dumitru Teodorescu; 2 September 1939 – 26 May 2016) was a Romanian football manager who is best known for his time in South Africa. Dumitru was one of few coaches who have led South Africa's 'big three' clubs Ka ...
the following year, when he started a game against arch rivals
Orlando Pirates
Orlando Pirates Football Club (often known as "The Buccaneers") is a South African professional football club based in the Houghton suburb of the city of Johannesburg and plays in the top-tier system of Football in South Africa known as DStv ...
.
Khumalo went on to become a star player for Kaizer Chiefs and did not play for any other South African soccer club, only leaving them for short overseas playing periods – he signed with FIFA agent Marcelo Houseman who first took him to
Argentinian
Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or ( feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, ...
club
Ferro Carril Oeste
Club Ferro Carril Oeste, known simply as Ferro Carril Oeste or familiarly, Ferro, is an Argentine sports club from the neighbourhood of Caballito, Buenos Aires. Although many activities are hosted by the club, Ferro is mostly known for its footb ...
for six months in 1995, while in 1996 and 1997 he played for the
Columbus Crew
The Columbus Crew, formerly known as Columbus Crew SC, is an American professional soccer club based in Columbus, Ohio. The Crew competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference and began play in 1996 as one ...
of
Major League Soccer
Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...
.
The high-point of Khumalo's soccer career was the 1990s; he was part of the Kaizer Chiefs teams that won three South African league championship titles and five knockout trophies and was also voted South African Footballer of the Year in 1992. During his career at the club, he played in a total of 397 league and cup games, scoring 90 goals.
After the re-admission of
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 ...
to
FIFA
FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...
in 1992, Khumalo was selected to be a member of the South African squad for its first official international match in July of the same year, against
Cameroon
Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...
. South Africa won the match 1–0, due to a penalty scored by Khumalo. He was also a leading member of the winning South African national team at the
1996 African Nations Cup
The 1996 African Cup of Nations was the 20th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the football championship of Africa ( CAF). It was hosted by South Africa, who replaced original hosts Kenya. The field expanded for the first time to 16 teams, ...
. He also represented South Africa in the
1998 Football World Cup
The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for th ...
. Throughout his whole international career, he played for South Africa 50 times (twice as captain), scoring nine goals making him the 13th most capped South African footballer.
One of Doctor Khumalo's most memorable games was perhaps the 1996 Mandela Cup match, where South Africa played against
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
.
Phil Masinga
Philemon Raul Masinga (28 June 1969 – 13 January 2019) was a South African professional footballer and manager who played as a striker from 1990 to 2002.
He played in the English Premier League for Leeds United, and Italian Serie A for Salern ...
scored the first goal from Doctor Khumalo's corner kick. Khumalo then scored the second goal to make the score 2–0 in favour of the South Africans. Unfortunately for Bafana, Brazil came back in the second half, scoring three goals, to win the encounter 3–2.
He retired in 2002 and then in 2004 as a player-coach. Although he was a winning co-coach (with Donald "Ace" Khuse) of Kaizer Chiefs in the 2002–2003 season (guiding the club to a 12-game unbeaten record and earning themselves a joint Coach of the Month
PSL
PSL may refer to:
Sport
*Pakistan Super League, a Twenty20 cricket league in Pakistan
*Philippine Super Liga, professional volleyball league in the Philippines
*Pilipinas Super League, a professional basketball league in the Philippines
* Philipp ...
award), Khumalo has stated that his aim is to become a soccer administrator. Since 2004, Khumalo served as a television soccer commentator and presenter, being named afterwards South African Under-17 national coach.
Khumalo was voted 62nd in the
Top 100 Great South Africans in 2004. He is married to
Namibia
Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...
n beauty queen Blanche Garises.
Coaching career
He has a
SAFA Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 coaching licences, an
English Football Association
The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world and ...
licence which he got in 2005 and a
UEFA
Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...
B licence through the
German Football Federation
The German Football Association (german: Deutscher Fußball-Bund ; DFB ) is the governing body of football in Germany. A founding member of both FIFA and UEFA, the DFB has jurisdiction for the German football league system and is in charge o ...
in 2007. He previously worked as head coach for the
Kaizer Chiefs
Kaizer Chiefs Football Club (often known as Chiefs) are a South African professional football club based in Naturena, Johannesburg South, that plays in the Premier Soccer League. The team is nicknamed ''AmaKhosi'', which means "Lords" or "Chie ...
Under-17 team and together with
Khuse. He was the assistant coach for Kaizer Chiefs
Acting career
Khumalo made his film acting debut with the German/South African production Themba.
He plays himself as the coach of the under 21s. The movie is about Themba, a young and ambitious football youth, who is faced with poverty, AIDS and violence, but eventually makes his way on to the South African national team. The film is based on a novel by Lutz van Dijk and premiered at the Berlinale 2010.
Career statistics
International goals
:''Scores and results list South Africa's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Khumalo goal''.
References
External links
Doctor KhumaloArgentine Primera statisticsat Fútbol XXI
Doctor Khumalo: The Story of a Bafana Legend
{{DEFAULTSORT:Khumalo, Doctor
1967 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Soweto
Soccer players from Gauteng
Zulu people
South African soccer players
South African expatriate soccer players
South Africa international soccer players
Columbus Crew players
Ferro Carril Oeste footballers
Expatriate footballers in Argentina
Expatriate soccer players in the United States
1996 African Cup of Nations players
1997 FIFA Confederations Cup players
1998 FIFA World Cup players
Kaizer Chiefs F.C. players
Argentine Primera División players
Association football midfielders
Major League Soccer players
Major League Soccer All-Stars
South African expatriate sportspeople in the United States