Motshweneng Simon Gopane (born 26 December 1970 in

Bloemfontein Bloemfontein, ( ; , "fountain of flowers") also known as Bloem, is one of South Africa's three capital cities and the capital of the Free State (province), Free State province. It serves as the country's judicial capital, along with legisla ...

) 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 a former international

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

. Throughout his career he played for

Bloemfontein Celtic Bloemfontein Celtic Football Club (simply known as Celtic) is a South African amateur football club based in Bloemfontein that competes in the ABC Motsepe League, the third tier of the South African football league system. Bloemfontein Celtic has ...

Jomo Cosmos Jomo Cosmos are a South African association football club based in Johannesburg that plays in the National First Division. The club is owned and coached by South African football legend Jomo Sono. In the 2021-2022 National First Division sea ...

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 ...

and

Mamelodi Sundowns F.C. Mamelodi Sundowns Football Club (simply known as Sundowns) is a South African professional Association football, football club based in Mamelodi, Pretoria in the Gauteng province that plays in the Premier Soccer League, the first tier of So ...

while also representing

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 ...

in the

1998 African Cup of Nations The 1998 African Cup of Nations in Burkina Faso was the 21st edition of the Africa Cup of Nations (ACN), the national football championship of Africa, administered by the Confederation of African Football (CAF). Just like in 1996, the field of ...

and

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for the ...

. Since retiring he would move into goalkeeper coaching and returned to his local team Bloemfontein Celtic before having a brief spell as the Head coach for Roses United F.C.

International career

Gopane would be called up to the

South African national team South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz' ...

squad for the 1998 African Cup of Nations held in

Burkina Faso Burkina Faso (, ; , ff, 𞤄𞤵𞤪𞤳𞤭𞤲𞤢 𞤊𞤢𞤧𞤮, italic=no) is a landlocked country in West Africa with an area of , bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the ...

as an uncapped player leading up to the tournament. He would go on to make his debut within the event on 16 February 1998 in a group game against

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

, which South Africa won 4–1. He was in the South African national team for the

as an injury replacement.South Africa's Evans to be replaced by Gopane
at fifa.com 17 June 1998 Retrieved 10 May 2013

Andre Arendse Andre Leander Arendse (born 27 June 1967) is a South African former soccer player who played as a goalkeeper. He now works as an assistant and goalkeeper coach for Supersport United and has also been a co-presenter with SuperSport. Playing c ...

was injured before the start of the tournament. His replacement, Paul Evans, was also injured shortly after arriving as a replacement. Gopane was then called up, and sat on the bench for the last two matches. He holds the distinctive position of being the first-ever goalkeeper to wear the number 23 for his country in the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

References

External links

* * 1970 births Living people Sportspeople from Bloemfontein Men's association football goalkeepers South African men's soccer players South Africa men's international soccer players 1998 FIFA World Cup players 1998 African Cup of Nations players Bloemfontein Celtic F.C. players Jomo Cosmos F.C. players Bush Bucks F.C. players Mamelodi Sundowns F.C. players Soccer players from the Free State (province) {{SouthAfrica-footy-bio-stub