Kermit Romeo Erasmus (born 8 July 1990) is a South African professional soccer player who plays for South African Premier Soccer League side

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 ...

and the South Africa national team. Born in Port Elizabeth, Erasmus moved to

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends eastward into the foot ...

as a teenager where he made his professional debut with SuperSport United in 2007. He spent the next two seasons in the Netherlands with

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club (association football), football club in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the club changed to various names bef ...

and

Excelsior Excelsior, a Latin comparative word often translated as "ever upward" or "even higher", may refer to: Arts and entertainment Literature and poetry * "Excelsior" (Longfellow), an 1841 poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow * ''Excelsior'' (Macedo ...

before returning to SuperSport United. During his second spell with the club, he made over 50 appearances and helped his side to the

Nedbank Cup The Nedbank Cup is the current name of South Africa's premier club soccer knockout tournament. While many formats have been used over the years, the tournament has always been based on the idea of giving lower league and amateur teams a chance t ...

title before joining

in 2013. He led Pirates to the same cup title in 2014 before leaving to join Rennes in France the following year. Erasmus struggled with Rennes, however, and shortly after spending a stint on

loan In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that ...

at Ligue 2 side,

Lens A lens is a transmissive optical device which focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements ...

, was released by the club. He spent the remainder of the 2018 in Sweden, with

Eskilstuna Eskilstuna () is a city and the seat of Eskilstuna Municipality, Södermanland County, Sweden. The city of Eskilstuna had 67,359 inhabitants in 2015, with a total population of 100,092 inhabitants in Eskilstuna municipality (2014). Eskilstuna h ...

, and Portugal, with

Vitória de Setúbal Vitoria or Vitória may refer to : People * Francisco de Vitoria (c. 1483–1546), a Spanish Renaissance theologian * Alberto Vitoria (1956–2010), Spanish footballer * Rui Vitória (born 1970), Portuguese retired footballer * Steven Vitória ...

Club career

Early career

Erasmus was groomed by, and graduated from the SuperSport Feyenoord Academy (now SuperSport United Youth Academy) to join

but remained at SuperSport United on trial for 2007–08 season. During the campaign, Erasmus made 10 appearances and scored once as Supersport clinched their first ever PSL title.

Feyenoord

On 29 May 2008,

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...

side

announced the signing of Erasmus on a three-year deal from South African affiliate-club SuperSport United and handed him the no. 15 jersey for the 2008–09 season. He made only four appearances for the Rotterdam club during the campaign and in July 2009 it was announced Erasmus would be loaned to satellite club

in the

Eerste Divisie The Eerste Divisie (, en, First Division) is the second-highest tier of football in the Netherlands. It is linked with the top-level Eredivisie and with the third-level Tweede Divisie via promotion/relegation systems. It is also known as t ...

for the following season. Erasmus, together with compatriot

Kamohelo Mokotjo Kamohelo Mokotjo (born 11 March 1991) is a South African professional soccer player who plays as a defensive midfielder for Sekhukhune United. After beginning his career in his native South Africa, he came to prominence in the Netherlands with ...

and six other Feyenoord players were loaned to Excelsior as a result of a new partnership between the two Rotterdam-based clubs.

Loan to Excelsior

Erasmus made his debut for Excelsior on 8 August and netted a late, headed equalizer in a 2–2 draw

Telstar Telstar is the name of various communications satellites. The first two Telstar satellites were experimental and nearly identical. Telstar 1 launched on top of a Thor-Delta rocket on July 10, 1962. It successfully relayed through space the fi ...

. By the conclusion of the season, Erasmus had netted 12 goals in 30 appearances whilst on loan at Excelsior. He did not return to Feyenoord, however, and the no.15 jersey he had previously worn was handed to Mokotjo for the upcoming season. During his time in the Netherlands Erasmus was nominated for the 2009 CAF Most Promising Talent of the Year award but lost out in the end to Ghana's

Dominic Adiyiah Dominic Adiyiah (born 29 November 1989) is a Ghanaian professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football), striker. Club career Early career Adiyiah began his football career at Feyenoord Ghana. He spent ...

Supersport United

On 10 July 2010, it was announced that Erasmus would be returning to South Africa to rejoin SuperSport United after failing to make the grade at Feyenoord. Eleven days after his return, Erasmus made his second appearance for Supersport United and scored what was described as a "sensational strike" in an MTN 8 loss against Moroka Swallows. On 26 May 2012, Erasmus scored the second goal in ''Matsatsantsa's'' 2–0 win over

Mamelodi Sundowns Mamelodi Sundowns Football Club (simply known as Sundowns) is a South African professional football club based in Mamelodi, Pretoria in the Gauteng province that plays in the Premier Soccer League, the first tier of South African football ...

in the

final. He left Supersport United at the end of the following season having made over 50 league appearances during his second spell at the club.

Orlando Pirates

On 23 July 2013, Irvin Khoza, the Chairman of

, confirmed the signing of Erasmus from Supersport United. The following day Pirates lodged a request to CAF for Erasmus to be registered for the upcoming CAF Champions League campaign. The request was denied, however, as Erasmus had already represented Supersport United in the CAF Confederations Cup earlier in the season. As per CAF regulations, a player is only eligible to feature for one club in CAF inter-club competitions during the course of a season. The 2014–15 season proved to be the most fruitful of Erasmus' spell 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 ...

as he netted a career-best 10 goals over the course of the PSL campaign. He also scored his first professional hat-trick on 2 May in a 3–0 CAF Confederations Cup win over Gabonese side

CF Mounana The Centre de Formation de Mounana, also known as CF Mounana, is a Gabonese football club based in Mounana. History CF Mounana won the Gabonese national Championship for the first time in 2012. Honours National *Gabon Championnat National D1 ...

. Erasmus then crowned the season off in style on 17 May by netting a match-winning brace as Orlando Pirates triumphed 3–1 over

Bidvest Wits Bidvest Wits Football Club, (simply often known as Wits University F.C. or Wits) was a South African professional football club from Johannesburg which played in the Premier Soccer League the first-tier of South African league football system ...

to lift the 2014

. On 8 January 2016, Erasmus was named in the 18-man

CAF Team of the Year The CAF Team of the Year is an annual football award given by the Confederation of African Football during the CAF Awards. In 2007, the CAF did not choose the team of the year, but rather the best ten players of the last fifty years. The ten pla ...

. He had also been nominated for the 2015 CAF African-based African Player of the Year award alongside Orlando Pirates teammate Filipe Ovono but eventually lost out to Mbwana Ally Samatta of

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands ...

. Eight days later, he netted a late equalizer in 3–3 PSL draw with

Maritzburg United Maritzburg United is a South African football club based in the city of Pietermaritzburg that currently plays in the Premier Soccer League. Honours *First Division Coastal Stream champions: 2007–08 *First Division Championship Play-offs: 2 ...

, with Pirates having trailed 3–0 in the first half. The goal proved to be Erasmus' final contribution for the ''Sea Robbers'' as the following week he completed a move to French Ligue 1 side Rennes.

Rennes

US Avranches vs Stade rennais, August 30th 2016 - Kermit Erasmus

On 28 January 2016, Erasmus signed for Ligue 1 club Stade Rennais on a two-and-a-half-year deal. He made his debut for the club on 13 March, coming on as an 80th-minute substitute for Pedro Henrique in a 2–2 draw with

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, third-largest city and Urban area (France), second-largest metropolitan area of F ...

. His only other appearance for the season came on the final day of the campaign in a 2–1 loss to

Bastia Bastia (, , , ; co, Bastìa ) is a commune in the department of Haute-Corse, Corsica, France. It is located in the northeast of the island of Corsica at the base of Cap Corse. It also has the second-highest population of any commune on the is ...

which saw Rennes end eighth in Ligue 1. He made his first appearance of the following campaign in Rennes' opening match of the season, coming on as a second-half substitute for Gélson Fernandes in a 1–0 defeat to

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard dialect, Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department in France. The Nice urban unit, agg ...

Loan to Lens

On 21 January 2017, Erasmus signed for Ligue 2 side

RC Lens Racing Club de Lens (, commonly referred to as RC Lens or simply Lens) is a French professional football club based in the northern city of Lens in the Pas-de-Calais department. Its nickname, ''les sang et or'' (''the blood and gold''), co ...

for the remainder of the season. He scored once in 12 league appearances for the club, with the goal coming on the final day of the season as Lens narrowly missed out on promotion. He returned to Rennes at the end of the campaign but, by February 2018 failed to make another appearance and was released by the club.

AFC Eskilstuna

On 26 March 2018, Erasmus signed a two year-deal with

AFC Eskilstuna Athletic Football Club Eskilstuna, also known as AFC Eskilstuna or simply AFC, is a Swedish football club located in Eskilstuna. The club has previously been known under the names FC Café Opera and Väsby United before switching ownership and t ...

, newly relegated to Superettan, Sweden's second tier. He went on to play 11 league games for the club, scoring twice, during the season.

Vitória

On 17 August 2018, he transferred to Portuguese club

in the Primeira Liga.

Cape Town City Football Club

On 18 December 2018, Erasmus signed for PSL side

Cape Town City A cape is a clothing accessory or a sleeveless outer garment which drapes the wearer's back, arms, and chest, and connects at the neck. History Capes were common in medieval Europe, especially when combined with a hood in the chaperon. Th ...

Orlando Pirates return

On 23 September 2022, Orlando Pirates confirmed the return of Erasmus on a two-year deal, from Mamelodi Sundowns.

International career

Youth

Erasmus represented

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

at the 2009 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Egypt and scored three goals throughout the course of the tournament.

Senior

Erasmus was called up to the senior squad for the first time in March 2008 for South Africa's friendly against Zimbabwe. In doing so, he was in line to break the record then-held by former captain

Aaron Mokoena Teboho Aaron Mokoena (born 25 November 1980), known as Aaron Mokoena, is a South African former footballer. He is currently the assistant coach of Cape Town City. Club career Early career Mokoena was born in Boipatong. He moved to Bayer Leve ...

and become South Africa's youngest ever full international. He did not take to the field and had to wait until 4 September 2010 before he made his debut, coming on as a second-half substitute for

Katlego Mphela Katlego Abel Mphela (born 29 November 1984) is a South African retired professional footballer who played as a forward. Club career Mphela, a product of Jomo Cosmos, played in France for RC Strasbourg Alsace and Stade de Reims, both with limi ...

against

Niger ) , official_languages = , languages_type = National languages2012 African Cup of Nations qualifier. Erasmus had to wait a further three years before scoring his first goal for South Africa, finally netting in a

2014 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA#Structure, FIFA confederations. The 2014 FIFA World Cup featured 32 teams, with one place reserved for the host nation, Brazil national football team, Bra ...

match against

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 Kalaha ...

on 7 September 2013.

Personal life

In 2010 Erasmus starred in the award-winning feature Documentary film Soka Afrika which highlighted the plight of young footballers across Africa.

Career statistics

Club

¹ Includes

Telkom Knockout The Telkom Knockout was a South African professional football knockout competition which comprised the 16 teams in the South African Premier Soccer League. The competition was established in 1982 and was first known as the Datsun Challenge. Unde ...

and

KNVB Beker The KNVB Beker (; en, KNVB Cup), branded as the TOTO KNVB Beker for sponsorship reasons, is a competition in the Netherlands organized by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) since 1898. It was based on the format of the English FA Cup. Ou ...

matches. ² Includes MTN 8 matches. ³ Includes

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. ...

and CAF Champions League matches. ⁴ Includes Jupiler Playoff matches.

International

:''Scores and results list South Africa's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Erasmus goal''.

Honours

Club

Supersport United *

Premier Soccer League Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of governm ...

: 2007–08 *

: 2011–12

Club

Mamelodi Sundowns *

: 2021-22 * MTN 8 Cup : 2021 Orlando Pirates *

: 2013–14 * MTN 8 Cup : 2022

Individual

: 2015 (as a substitute)

References

External links

Voetbal International ''Voetbal International'' (VI) is a Dutch football magazine. It is the oldest Dutch football magazine that is still running. History and Profile ''Voetbal International'' was established in 1965. VI was one of the founding members of ESM but le ...

Kermit Erasmus
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Erasmus, Kermit 1990 births Association football forwards AFC Eskilstuna players Eerste Divisie players Eredivisie players Expatriate footballers in France Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands Expatriate footballers in Sweden Expatriate footballers in Portugal Feyenoord players Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players Living people Mamelodi Sundowns F.C. players Orlando Pirates F.C. players Primeira Liga players RC Lens players Excelsior Rotterdam players South Africa international soccer players South African expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands South African expatriate sportspeople in France South African expatriate sportspeople in Sweden South African expatriate sportspeople in Portugal South African expatriate soccer players South African soccer players Sportspeople from Port Elizabeth Stade Rennais F.C. players Superettan players SuperSport United F.C. players Vitória F.C. players Cape Town City F.C. (2016) players Cape Coloureds Soccer players from the Eastern Cape