Moneeb Josephs vividly remembers the beautiful day his grandfather took him to Mnandi Beach, a lovely Blue Flag seashore set on the warm False Bay coastline.
The coastline is popular with the residents of Strandfontein and Khayelitsha, who often go there for a swim to cool down their bodies when Cape Town’s temperatures flare. But on that day, they were not going to plunge for pleasure…
Gramps probably wanted to see if his lil’ boy had the same abilities as him and his uncles in between the sticks. He was only seven at the time.
“There were goalposts, and he told me to get in the poles. He started taking a couple of shots and saw something in me. On our way home, he said this is what I was meant to do,” Josephs recalls.
Gramps – the man credited for identifying his potential between the sticks – knew precisely what he was doing. After all, the eccentric goalie was plucked from a long line of goalkeepers in his family. Grandpa himself guarded goals for the now-defunct Baltic Rangers. His uncles also guarded the goalposts.
In essence, Slim Kat’s illustrious footballing journey is true testament that ‘the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree’. In fact, ABC Motsepe League outfit Ikapa Sporting chairman Shaun Pietersen, a former goalie himself, reveals that Josephs’s son, Niyaaz, is also one for the future. Yes, the 22-year-old is a shot-stopper, too, with a penchant for stopping penalties.
“It’s a family of goalkeepers. Niyaaz played for us for two seasons as a goalkeeper. The boy is an awesome prospect. I think he’d go far if he takes his career seriously,” Pietersen tells FARPost.
However, Pietersen, who played for Battswood in yesteryear’s Federation Professional League (FPL), is quick to admit Niyaaz’s dad set the bar too high.
Understandably so, the man was in a class of his own. Josephs collected every trophy on offer in South African football. His list of individual accolades is remarkable.
He has three League titles – two of them won with Orlando Pirates and the other with Wits – to boast of. He counts the 2002/03 PSL Players’ Player of the Season award, PSL Goalkeeper of the Season accolades for the 2009/10 and 2014/15 campaigns, and the Telkom Knockout Goalkeeper the Tournament in 2011 among his awards.
Without a doubt, he is one of the finest beings to come out of the drug-ravaged, crime-ridden Cape Flats. “He’s a top-class goalkeeper, one of our country’s finest. A true example of a professional,” Pietersen adds.
But it all started on a fateful afternoon. Grandpa’s assurance set him on a pedestal. It was as though a handbrake had been released on a car stationed on a downward slope. Thereafter, his journey started at Westridge FC. His extraordinary football voyage would gather momentum with a triumphant debut on September 7, 1997, for Cape Town Spurs against African Wanderers.
It would then take him to topflight clubs – Ajax Cape Town, Bidvest Wits, the Buccaneers and AmaZulu, earning him a startling 483 PSL appearances, a record by a goalkeeper.
His former Bucs teammate, Teko Modise, knows just what has set him apart from the rest. ‘The General’, as Modise was affectionately known, singles out Slim Kat’s hyper-competitive nature as that little secret that has thrust him to great heights. Josephs, he says, isn’t afraid to demand the best from teammates.
Unsurprisingly, Modise says he benefited from Josephs’ winning mentality. In fact, he says his second successive Footballer of the Year award in 2008/09 was mainly because of the rapport he built with Josephs.
“I had so much joy playing with Moeneeb,” he says. “I remember the second time when I won the Footballer of the Year; I had a better understanding with Moeneeb.”
Modise was playing on the left side of the Bucs’ midfield, and Josephs, who comfortably uses both feet, knew exactly where to put the ball to set up counterattacks. That season, Pirates came close to winning the title in the final game but were tied with SuperSport at the top of the points table after collecting 55 points each.
SuperSport had a greater goal difference with 23 goals over Bucs’ 17 goals. “He would tell me what he would do with counterattacks, where exactly he would put the ball. We had that kind of connection, and it became easier for me,” says Modise, who hung up his boots two seasons ago.
Besides his exceptional ball distribution, Modise says Josephs was a “breath of fresh air” in the Sea Robbers’ dressing room. “He is such a positive character,” he says, adding that what you see on the pitch is exactly what he is off the field. “He is just a bubbly guy.”
His former Wits coach Gavin Hunt says it’s no surprise the man he first watched at 16 has come this far. “He’s been exceptional, fantastic, a great servant of the game,” says Hunt.
He adds that it’s a pity he could not make it to Europe. The closest he came to a move was when he trained with Dutch side Ajax Amsterdam in 2003 but returned home after an unsuccessful trial.
“He has the right personality for the game. He has a great determination to want to win,” says Hunt. Like Modise, Hunt believes the eccentric goalie is a typical goalkeeper character – “real, jovial, livewire, up and down.”
Perhaps that is why his former AmaZulu teammate Ovidy Karuru believes goalkeeping is a calling for the former Bafana Bafana keeper. “It seems to be a calling for him; the man enjoys what he does. He’s energetic and ever happy. I don’t remember seeing him angry,” says the Zimbabwe international.
But while grandpa was taking those shots, it certainly didn’t cross his mind that decades later, his grandson would guard the goals for his country in the FIFA 2010 World Cup against heavyweights France, a match that would end in a 2-1 win for Bafana Bafana.
Having transitioned to being a goalkeepers’ coach at Usuthu, his first choice goalie Veli Mothwa says it is evident that he loves his job dearly. “You can tell he likes to see the people he coaches achieve great things; he keeps telling me that he would like to see me break his records because I can,” Mothwa tells FARPost.
Besides allowing his goalkeepers to stand on his broad shoulders, the 41-year-old always brings a refreshing change to the Durban side’s dressing room. “We have a good relationship, and it is a beautiful experience to work with a man like him. He has played in the World Cup, played in Caf competitions, and knows it all.
“Slim Kat is a good coach and a lovely human being that you want to be next to every time you go to training or go to a game. “When you come to training angry, you’ll be okay when you see his face. All the stress goes away,” adds Mothwa. No wonder Josephs has genuinely been a whimsical servant of the game.
