Thulani Tyson Hlatshwayo (born 18 December 1989) is a South African professional

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 plays as a defender for

Supersport United SuperSport United Football Club (often known as SuperSport) is a South African professional football club based in Atteridgeville in Pretoria in the Gauteng province. The team currently plays in the Dstv Premiership. United is known as ''Matsats ...

and

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

Career

Ajax Cape Town

Hlatshwayo was born 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 ...

. He made his professional debut for Ajax on 5 August 2009 in a 2–1 win against

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 a quarter-final match of the

2009 MTN 8 The 2009 MTN 8 was the 35th time that this annual tournament took place. It was contested by the eight top teams of the Premier Soccer League table at the end of the 2008-09 season. The tournament began on 4 August 2009, and ended on 24 October ...

tournament at the Coca Cola Park 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 ...

. He was promoted from the club's youth academy ranks after years of good showing for both the club and the country's national youth teams.

Bidvest Wits

In the early months of 2014 it was announced that 'Tyson' as he is efficiently known has signed a pre-contract with

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. ...

. By doing so Hlatshwayo ended speculations that he was heading to Orlando Pirates. He joined the Johannesburg-based club in June. He has since been a force to be reckoned alongside another former Ajax CT player in

Thato Mokeke Thato Mokeke (born 1 April 1989) is a South African professional soccer player who plays for Cape Town City, as a central defender. Career Born in Cape Town, Mokeke has played club football for SuperSport United, Winners Park, Ajax Cape Town, ...

. He started in Bidvest's opening league game against SuperSport United.

International career

Youth teams

Hlatswayo has played for both the South Africa national under-17 and under-20 teams. He was also a member of the South African U-20 team that played in the

2009 FIFA U-20 World Cup The 2009 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the 17th edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, which was hosted by Egypt from 24 September to 16 October 2009. The tournament was initially going to take place between 10 and 31 July. However, the 2009 FIFA Confedera ...

, which lost to

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

in a 2–1 defeat, losing to the eventual champions in the Round of 16 of the tournament.

Senior team

Hlatswayo was included in

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 ...

's squad for the

2015 Africa Cup of Nations The 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, known as the Orange Africa Cup of Nations, Equatorial Guinea 2015 for sponsorship reasons, was the 30th staging of the Africa Cup of Nations, the international men's football championship of Africa. It was orga ...

and scored an

own goal An own goal, also called a self goal, is where a player performs actions that result in them or their team scoring a goal on themselves, often resulting in a point for the opposing team, such as when a football player kicks a ball into their own ...

in the team's opening match as they lost 3–1 to

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

. On 13 October 2018, he was one of South Africa's goalscorers as the nation recorded its largest ever victory with a 6–0 win over

Seychelles Seychelles (, ; ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (french: link=no, République des Seychelles; Creole: ''La Repiblik Sesel''), is an archipelagic state consisting of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, V ...

in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier.

Career statistics

International

International goals

:''Scores and results list South Africa's goal tally first.''

Honours

Club

Ajax Cape Town *

: Finalist * 2010 Telkom Knockout: Runners up Bidvest Wits F.C Premier Soccer League ° 2016/2017 MTN 8 ° 2016 Telkom knockout 2017 Orlando Pirates F.C MTN 8 ° 2020

Notes

References

External links

* Living people 1989 births Sportspeople from Soweto Association football defenders South African soccer players Cape Town Spurs F.C. players Bidvest Wits F.C. players SuperSport United F.C. players 2011 CAF U-23 Championship players 2015 Africa Cup of Nations players 2019 Africa Cup of Nations players South Africa international soccer players {{SouthAfrica-footy-bio-stub