In football, some moments are unforgettable because they only change the result of a match, but the life of a player is completely.
This is what happened with Benny McCarthy, who turned from an ambitious young man in the streets of Cape Town, the capital of South Africa (legislative) to one of the most prominent attackers in his country’s history, after a moment of brilliance, whose talent blew in front of the continent and the world.
McCarthy was born in 1977 in Cape Town and grew up in the Hanover Park neighborhood of Cape Flati, a region famous for high unemployment and gang violence.
The start of his football career with the Sven Stars Club was in 1995, played with him until 1997, and participated in 49 games, scoring 39 goals.
In 1997, McCarthy moved to Ajax Cape Town, played with 10 games and scored 6 goals.
Explosive
Despite his first appearance with the South African national team in a friendly match against the Netherlands in 1997, the real start of McCarthy came in the 1998 African Nations Cup, when his name on the continental horizon scored 4 goals in only 21 minutes against Namibia, in a match that turned him from a promising talent to a star turning attention.
The Namibia team was not a strong opponent, but the performance was an explicit message that Beni was born to make the difference, and he later proved himself in the championship, as he crowned the award of the competition’s top award and the best player, which paved the way for an international march that will be written in history books.
What distinguishes McCarthy is that he was not satisfied with brilliance against the ordinary opponents, but rather made impressive shows in front of the giants of the game, where Mexico, Spain, England, and Germany faced him, and the name or shirt was not eager and was able to destabilize the most powerful defenses, and hit the nets in moments that no one expected.
In the 1998 World Cup, his name was engraved in letters of gold when he scored the first goal for South Africa in the history of the World Cup, overcoming the giant Denmark goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel, giving his country a moment that will not be forgotten in its football history.
Over the course of 80 international matches, McCarthy scored 32 goals, becoming the first historical goal of the “Bavana Pavana” team, and has maintained his position despite the succession of generations, stressing that his position as the best scorer in the history of South Africa is still difficult to break.
Despite the continental and international glory, McCarthy’s brilliance did not stop at the borders of Africa, as he stormed European stadiums strongly, during which he achieved what many Africans did not achieve.
Historical coronation
He moved between prominent European teams, and crowned the League and Cup title in the Netherlands with Ajax Amsterdam, and in Portugal the greatest achievement was when he contributed to the crowning of Porto in the Champions League in 2004 under the leadership of the famous coach Jose Mourinho, along with the local league.
McCarthy played a pivotal role in this historical coronation at the expense of the leading European continent, although the spotlight was more on Deco and his colleagues.
McCarthy scored 4 goals in the tournament’s journey and was the team’s top scorer, but his name was rarely mentioned when talking about that legendary campaign, which is a historical unjust to the player that was one of the keys to success.
The end of his career was not the same, as he suffered in West Ham, the English and was ignored in the 2010 World Cup on his country. But these remain natural zigzags in the march of an exceptional player, as the titles he won, and the moments he made, cannot be erased.