Thuso Phala (born 27 May 1986 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 ...

) is a retired 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 ...

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 ...

. He is the inventor of Thuso Phala dance moves that are becoming popular to South African soccer fans and dancers at large, the moves he makes after he scores a goal. Phala was featured in a BBC documentary in 2004 entitled 'Football and Freedom' which followed the paths of two 13-year-old South Africans aiming to become professional footballers.

International career

Since making his debut for 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 ...

in 2010, Phala has appeared at both the

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

and

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

Africa Cup of Nations The Africa Cup of Nations referred to as AFCON (french: Coupe d'Afrique des Nations, sometimes referred to as CAN, or TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons), and sometimes as African Cup of Nations, is the main internati ...

. He scored Bafana Bafana's opening goal of the 2015 tournament in a 3–1 loss to

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International goals

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Phala, Thuso 1986 births Living people South African soccer players Association football midfielders Kaizer Chiefs F.C. players Platinum Stars F.C. players Mamelodi Sundowns F.C. players SuperSport United F.C. players Black Leopards F.C. players Sportspeople from Soweto South Africa international soccer players 2013 Africa Cup of Nations players 2015 Africa Cup of Nations players