Webster "City Late" Lichaba (born 6 October 1954) is a retired South African

football (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 ...

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 ...

who played for

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 ...

, Atlanta Chiefs and Jomo Cosmos.

Youth career

Born in Mzimhlophe, he lived a street away from Ryder Mofokeng. He played for White City Lucky Brothers with Mofokeng.

Orlando Pirates

When he was signed from Mzimhlophe Callies at age 19, he became a teammate of

Jomo Sono Ephraim Matsilele Sono OIS (born Madoda Walletjies Mkulwana, 17 July 1955), better known as Jomo Sono, is a South African football club owner, coach and former professional footballer. He has been variously nicknamed the "Black Prince of South ...

. He captained them and won three league titles with Pirates.

Atlanta Chiefs

When he moved to America in 1980 the chairman was

Ted Turner Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III (born November 19, 1938) is an American entrepreneur, television producer, media proprietor, and philanthropist. He founded the Cable News Network (CNN), the first 24-hour cable news channel. In addition, he fo ...

, the founder of

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

. He nearly earned 100 appearances for Chiefs. He also appeared in a handful of

indoor Indoor(s) may refer to: *the interior of a building *Indoor environment, in building science, traditionally includes the study of indoor thermal environment, indoor acoustic environment, indoor light environment, and indoor air quality *Built envi ...

matches for the Chiefs at that time

Jomo Cosmos

Lichaba was brought back to his home country by his retired former teammate

who had acquired a team. In the 1986 season, he set the record for the most starts in a season, 46. That feat was also achieved by

Helman Mkhalele Helman Nkosiyethu Mkhalele (born 20 October 1969) is a South African former soccer player who played as a midfielder. He was the part of the Orlando Pirates squad that won the 1994 National Soccer League and 1995 African Cup of Champions Club ...

in 1993. He retired at the age of 37.

After Retirement

In 2001, he became an assistant coach at Supersport United and their team manager in 2003 onwards. He is also the junior academy's scout.

Personal life

He is married to Buyi Radebe-Lichaba. He is the father of 4 girls, Nthabiseng, Neo, Tlholo as well as South African award winning singer, Lira.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lichaba, Webster 1954 births Living people Men's association football midfielders South African men's soccer players South African expatriate men's soccer players Soccer players from Soweto Atlanta Chiefs players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) indoor players Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States South African expatriate sportspeople in the United States Jomo Cosmos F.C. players Orlando Pirates F.C. players South African soccer managers