South Africa captain Ronwen Williams will be heading to Paris for Monday’s Ballon d’Or awards, taking his place among elite company as he is nominated for the Yashin Award.
He is the first South African to feature at the Ballon d’Or, although there have been four compatriots nominated for the Fifa Puskas award for the best goals of the year.
The Yashin award is for the world’s top goalkeeper and Williams one of this year’s 10 nominees who will be at the Chalet Theatre in the French capital, alongside the glitterati of world football.
Williams, nominated primarily for his penalty stopping prowess at the Africa Cup of Nations finals, is up against current holder Emiliano Martínez (Argentina, Aston Villa) plus Diogo Costa (Portugal, Porto); Gianluigi Donnarumma (Italy, Paris Saint-Germain); Gregor Kobel (Switzerland, Borussia Dortmund); Andriy Lunin (Ukraine, Real Madrid); Mike Maignan (France, Milan); Giorgi Mamardashvili (Georgia, Valencia); Unai Simón (Spain, Athletic Club) and Inter Milan goalkeeper Yann Sommer, who recently retired from international football with Switzerland.
The award is named after the legendary Soviet Union goalkeeper Lev Yashin, who revolutionised the position during his career with Dynamo Moscow and the Soviet Union in the 1950s and 1960s. Yashin remains the only goalkeeper to ever win the Ballon d'Or award.
The Yashin Trophy was first given out in 2019, when Brazil and Liverpool stopper Alisson won the prize, with Gianluigi Donnarumma and Thibaut Courtois following him up as winners, before Aston Villa's Emiliano Martinez claimed the honour last year.
For Williams, being nominated was massive surprise. “Honestly, a shock. I felt like I was dreaming, I didn't believe it ... and the more time passed, the more I was proud of it, not only for my country, but for Africa as a whole. It makes me proud of my story. It will motivate and inspire people to dream big. It will open doors,” he said.
“I had a call from my club's press officer who congratulated me, but I was confused. Why was he congratulating me? He then told me to look at the club's WhatsApp group and there I saw my face with the name: Ballon d'Or. I thought it was a joke but when I saw my phone full of messages ... a crazy moment. When you come from Africa as a goalkeeper, how can you even dream of achieving this recognition?”
Williams, 32, is on course to set several marks in the next years, heading towards 50 caps for his country and possibly by this time next year threaten the 500-game mark in his professional club career.
He already holds the record for the most appearances for SuperSport United with 380 and in his first two seasons at Mamelodi Sundowns started an extraordinary 84 games, winning two league ties and the African Football League.
“I was a goal scorer as a kid, but my coach, who was my uncle, was a goalkeeper,” explains Gqeberha-born Williams about the genesis of his carer.
“And I liked the idea that he was a hero with his saves. At 11, I made my mind up to stick to goalkeeping although it was hard to stop scoring because I could have been a pro as a striker, but I liked taking on the role of hero. Then, I almost gave up football. When I went to SuperSport United, I was not selected for a junior tournament in the Netherlands because I was too small. I stayed behind, alone, at the academy. But my parents refused to let me come back home. The coach also told me that I had the talent, but that I had to grow. My luck is that at 15 I started to grow and I became one of the tallest (1.84 m). And without taking any medicine. I spent my time sleeping because I was told that sleeping would help me!”
The world took notice of Williams with his saves against the Cape Verde Islands in the Cup of Nations quarterfinal in the Ivory Coast in January.
“I've always been very good at this. But to stop four ... I had worked hard in advance. If I show you my phone, it's full of videos of the shooters,” he adds.
The Yashin Trophy rewards the best goalkeeper, without distinction of championship or nationality, and is awarded based on three main criteria. They are individual performances, decisive and impressive character; team performances and achievements and class and fair play
The trophy is awarded by an international jury of specialised journalists, with one representative per country, from the top 100 in the latest Fifa rankings before the lists are published.
Each juror selects three players from a list of 10 nominees established by the editorial staff of France Football, members of the editorial staff of L'Équipe, the best juror from the previous edition and Uefa ambassador Luís Figo.
The three selected players are awarded five, three and one point. The trophy is awarded to the player with the highest number of points.
There have been four South African footballers previously nominated for the Fifa Puskas award. The first was Katlego Mphela who scored a stunner against Spain in the 2009 Confederations Cup at the Royal Bafokeng Sports Stadium, followed by one year later by Siphiwe Tshabalala for the opening goal at the 2010 World CuIn 2017, Oscarine Masuluke made the Puskas Award list for his goal for Baroka against Orlando Pirates in the Nedbank Cup while in 2020 Hlompho Kekana was nominated after netting a sensational goal against Cape Town City in August 2019.