Neil Robert Tovey OIS (born 2 July 1962) is a South African

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

coach and former player and also brother of former footballer

Mark Tovey Mark Tovey (born 7 May 1955) is a retired South African footballer. His brother is former footballer Neil Tovey. Early life He attended Northlands Primary School and Northlands Secondary School (now Northwood School) in Durban North. Club c ...

. He was born in

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

. He holds the record for most appearances in the

National Soccer League The National Soccer League (NSL) was the top-level soccer league in Australia, run by Soccer Australia and later the Australian Soccer Association. The NSL, the A-League's predecessor, spanned 28 seasons from its inception in 1977 until its d ...

Early career

Tovey was born in

but grew up in

Durban Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...

. He had been playing soccer since 1969. He aspired to be a doctor before opting to play professional football. His brother

Mark Mark may refer to: Currency * Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina * East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic * Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927 * Fi ...

who was also a footballer used to give him football lessons. He was also coached at junior level at Juventus Durban by

Clive Barker Clive Barker (born 5 October 1952) is an English novelist, playwright, author, film director, and visual artist who came to prominence in the mid-1980s with a series of short stories, the ''Books of Blood'', which established him as a leading h ...

Club career

Durban City

He made his professional debut for Durban City in 1981 and won the 1982 and 1983 NPSL titles under

and played 176 league games. Tovey was transfer listed on 12 March 1986.

AmaZulu

He scored on debut in a 2--1 win over Arcadia Shepherds in

on 4 April 1986. He also scored in a 5--1 win over Kaizer Chiefs on 8 June 1986 in what became Chiefs' worst loss ever. He stayed until 1989 and played 117 league games.

Kaizer Chiefs

He joined Chiefs in 1990 and took over captaincy from Howard Freese in 1992 wearing the number 9 jersey. In the same season, Tovey got a record 52 starts which is still a record. He was converted to defence by

Philippe Troussier Philippe Omar TroussierOctober's ten - Religious conversions

. He led Chiefs to cup victory scored two very important goals in the Rothmans Cup against

QwaQwa Stars Free State Stars Football club is a South African professional football club based in Bethlehem, Free State that plays in the National First Division. Formerly known as Makwane Computer Stars and Qwa Qwa Stars, their most significant honour i ...

and

Umtata Bush Bucks Bush Bucks is a South African association football club. The club was founded in 1957 and originally based in Mthatha in the Eastern Cape. In 2001, the team moved to East London. It was nicknamed ''Imbabala (The Bucks)''. History The club was fo ...

. He played 341 league games for Chiefs. He played 362 matches and scored 32 goals in all competitions. In the very last match of his career and his last two touches Chiefs colours resulted in a goal in a 5–1 win over Dynamos on 9 June 1999.

International career

Tovey is a former player of the

South Africa national football team The South Africa national soccer team represents South Africa in men's international Association football, soccer and it is run by the South African Football Association, the governing body for Soccer in South Africa. The team's nickname is Baf ...

, and won 52 caps for the national side without scoring a goal. He captained the team 29 times.

Coaching career

Tovey coached Banyana Banyana to COSAFA Cup victory in 2002. Tovey saved Hellenic from relegation in the 2003–04 season. He got his

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 ...

A licence with a 90% pass in

Hennef Hennef (Sieg) () is a town in the Rhein-Sieg district of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated on the river Sieg, approx. south-east of Siegburg and east of Bonn. Hennef is the fourth-biggest town in the Rhein-Sieg-Kreis (i.e. distric ...

, Germany, which were the best marks since 1998. On 27 June 2015 Tovey became technical director of

Personal life

Tovey lives in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

with his wife Nadine Tovey and has three children, Bianca (b. 1991), Jessica (b. 1993) and Sheldon (b. 1997). His second daughter Jessica was a Miss Teen SA finalist in 2011 where

Tyra Banks Tyra Lynne Banks (born December 4, 1973), also known as BanX, is an American television personality, model, producer, writer, and actress. Born in Inglewood, California, she began her career as a model at the age of 15, and was the first Africa ...

shared a picture of her on

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

. Sheldon wears a hearing aid and has impaired speech because oxygen was cut off from his brain after being burnt by scalding water in 1998. On 23 February 2015, Tovey was admitted to ICU after suffering from three

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...

s during a game of

squash Squash may refer to: Sports * Squash (sport), the high-speed racquet sport also known as squash racquets * Squash (professional wrestling), an extremely one-sided match in professional wrestling * Squash tennis, a game similar to squash but pla ...

. Tovey suffered a further heart attack in October 2016, and was admitted to hospital.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tovey, Neil South African soccer players South African soccer managers South Africa international soccer players AmaZulu F.C. players Living people 1962 births Kaizer Chiefs F.C. players 1997 FIFA Confederations Cup players Sportspeople from Pretoria White South African people South African people of English descent 1996 African Cup of Nations players Mamelodi Sundowns F.C. managers AmaZulu F.C. managers Hellenic F.C. managers Association football central defenders Alumni of Northwood School, Durban