Steve Komphela (born 1 July 1967) is a South African football coach and a former player. He is the former manager of

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 ...

, Kaizer Chiefs, Golden Arrows and Bloemfontein Celtic. He is currently working as a Senior Coach at Mamelodi Sundowns and he has been credited for his good work at Mamelodi Sundowns.

Early life

Steve was born in Golden Valley farm, 20 km outside

Kroonstad Kroonstad (Afrikaans directly translated "Crown City") is the third largest city in the Free State (after Bloemfontein and Welkom) and lies two hours' drive on the N1 from Gauteng. Maokeng is an area within Kroonstad, and is occasionally used ...

to Jack Koyi Koyo and Nomalanga Komphela as the youngest of 11 children. Komphela became a teacher by profession after he got his teacher's diploma at Tshiya College in Free State.

Club career

Komphela started out at NSL Second Division side Klerksdorp City and later

Qwa Qwa 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 ...

where he earned promotion to the National Soccer League. He made his NSL debut on 9 February 1986 in a 4–1 win over

Witbank Aces Black Aces were a South African football club that played in the Premier Soccer League. Aces usually played their home games in the Mpumalanga province but were based and trained in Johannesburg. History The original club was founded in 1937 b ...

. In 1992, Komphela helped his team to a third-place finish in the league and was voted the NSL Players' Player of the Year. He later joined Kaizer Chiefs where he played all 34 league games and signed a contract overseas on 16 August 1993 moving to

Gaziantepspor Gaziantepspor was a Turkish football club located in the city of Gaziantep. Formed in 1969 and dissolved in 2020, Gaziantepspor were nicknamed the ''Şahinler'' (The Falcons). The club colours were black and red, and they played their home matche ...

for the second half of 1993/94 season alongside fellow South African Tebogo Moloi. He retired in 1997.

Outside football

Komphela is married to Mamoepi Komphela, and together they have three kids: Nombuyiselo, Nomalanga, and Noxolo. He taught at the

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 Dem ...

Secondary School but apart from being a life orientation teacher and a professional footballer, Komphela was also a TV presenter. He hosted his own talk show on television channel Canakkale Dardanelspor AS. Komphela was approached by SABC to be the host of a football talk show but rejected this opportunity. Steve also tutors the

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 ...

youth team. He said the youth need brains to play football because "without brains a footballer is just a headless chicken chasing a ball". He also takes part in many youth uplifting programs.

International career

Komphela is a founder member of the new national team of

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 ...

. He made his debut on 7 July 1992 in a 1–0 win over

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 ...

. On 24 October 1992 against Congo, his 7th cap, he captained the team in its second World Cup qualifier. He played every minute of the first 22 internationals. He captained the team for the 18th and last time in a 2–2 draw against

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are t ...

on 22 November 1995 which was his 24th cap. Having played almost half of the team's internationals up to December 1995. He was not selected for the

1996 African Cup of Nations 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, ...

for obvious reasons.

Coaching career

Kompela began his coaching career with Manning Rangers F.C. in 2002. Between 2002 and 2015, he coached several clubs, in which he all worked for a single season. In 2015, he joined

Kaizer Chiefs F.C. 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 "Ch ...

for a three-year contract. He did not win any trophy since his arrival at Kaizer Chiefs and was forced to resign before the end of his contract. This followed after Kaizer Chief's fans launched violent protests against him in every match. In July 2018, he joined Bloemfontein Celtic which was undergoing financial struggles at the time. Shortly after he started his new career with Bloemfontein Celtic, he started the 2018-19

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 ...

league with a huge surprise. He won the first six consecutive league games and got a 2–2 draw against Kaizer Chiefs, after which his team was down to 2–0 at one point later in the second-half. He also beat

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 ...

in that first leg of the season. He managed Golden Arrows but resigned a day before he was announced as the new

coach. He was announced to coach Mamelodi Sundowns on the club's Twitter on Monday 12 October 2020.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Komphela, Steve 1967 births Living people South African soccer players South Africa international soccer players South African expatriate soccer players Kaizer Chiefs F.C. players Gaziantepspor footballers Dardanelspor footballers Süper Lig players Expatriate footballers in Turkey Association football defenders South Africa national soccer team managers Maritzburg United F.C. managers Free State Stars F.C. managers Platinum Stars F.C. managers Dynamos F.C. (South Africa) managers South African soccer managers