{"id":36719,"date":"2026-06-10T15:58:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T13:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=36719"},"modified":"2026-06-10T15:59:03","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T13:59:03","slug":"former-bafana-bafana-keeper-hails-ronwen-williams-ahead-of-bafana-mexico-clash","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/former-bafana-bafana-keeper-hails-ronwen-williams-ahead-of-bafana-mexico-clash\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Bafana Bafana keeper hails Ronwen Williams ahead of Bafana, Mexico clash"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"ltr\"><span style=\"font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">Former Bafana Bafana reserve goalkeeper Shu-Aib Walters remains impressed by captain Ronwen Williams\u2019 remarkable rise on both the domestic and international stage.<\/span><\/div>\n<div id=\"ms-outlook-mobile-signature\">\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>Williams endured a difficult national team debut back in 2014 when South Africa suffered a 5-0 defeat to Brazil at FNB Stadium, a performance many critics used to question his ability at the highest level.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>More than a decade later, the Mamelodi Sundowns shotstopper is now widely regarded as Africa\u2019s best goalkeeper and Walters has backed him to once again prove his quality on football\u2019s biggest stage.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>\u201cFor me, we\u2019ve always said it, goalkeepers mature with games, with experiences, with situations, and that has always been the thing,\u201d he explains, adding \u201cThat\u2019s why I say, I think he\u2019s still got a good three, four years where he\u2019s actually still going to compete \u00a0I mean, look at Denis Onyango at 41, still playing good football.\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>Walters stresses, \u201cSo it\u2019s always, for goalkeeping, it\u2019s about how did he recover from that and what did he learn from that? Did he take it as a knock or did he say, look, this is something that\u2019s actually going to help me grow as a player, as a footballer, as a goalkeeper.\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>Walters adds that Williams\u2019 transfer from SuperSport United to Sundowns four years ago was simply the cherry on top.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>\u201cObviously his mindset and then the move to Sundowns also helped a lot for his career as well because then he took on a lot more responsibility, whether it was the Champions League, continental or the club, and then the armband as well,\u201d he adds.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>\u201cSo I think all of those things has really helped him and groomed him to become a very good goalkeeper, and I think he could still be in the top 20 goalkeepers in the world, definitely.\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">\u2014SABC\u2014<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":35912,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-36719","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Williams endured a difficult national team debut back in 2014 when South Africa suffered a 5-0 defeat to Brazil at FNB Stadium","published_date":"","news_description":"Williams endured a difficult national team debut back in 2014 when South Africa suffered a 5-0 defeat to Brazil at FNB Stadium","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36720,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36719\/revisions\/36720"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=36719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}