Bennett Masinga (13 January 1965 – 14 November 2013) was a South African

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played as a striker. He was the cousin of former footballer

Phil Masinga Philemon Raul Masinga (28 June 1969 – 13 January 2019) was a South African professional footballer and manager who played as a striker from 1990 to 2002. He played in the English Premier League for Leeds United, and Italian Serie A for Saler ...

. Masinga died on 14 November 2013 at the age of 48.

International career

He was on the score sheet with his cousin in one of

Bafana Bafana The South Africa national soccer team represents South Africa in men's international soccer and it is run by the South African Football Association, the governing body for Soccer in South Africa. The team's nickname is Bafana Bafana (The Boys ...

's first international matches in a 2–2 draw against

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west- central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; th ...

on 11 July 1992. His fifth and last international match was against

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...

on 10 April 1993.Ex-Bafana striker Masinga dies , Sport24
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Style of play

MTN described Masinga as one of the best near post goalscorers in SA football, a tiny man, quick as lightning and able to sniff out a goal in any situation.RIP Bennett Masinga – MTNFootball

Death

Masinga died at the age of 48 after a short illness. Condolences flooded in for the Masinga family. Former

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

teammate

Zane Moosa Zane Moosa (born 23 September 1968) is a South African former footballer who played at both professional and international levels as a midfielder. Moosa played club football in South Africa and Saudi Arabia for Wits University, Mamelodi Sundowns ...

took to

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

to mourn with his tweet reading "Eish, what a sad way to start the weekend. The passing of Bennett "Loverboy" Masinga, what a player! Robala ka kgostso Bennito".

also said "I idolised him. Followed him around as a youngster. Carried his boots for him just to see him play. All I wanted was to be as good in football as he was. No doubt he was a better player than me."

Career statistics

International goals

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Masinga, Bennett 1965 births 2013 deaths South African soccer players South Africa international soccer players Association football forwards Mamelodi Sundowns F.C. players People from Klerksdorp Bloemfontein Celtic F.C. players Hellenic F.C. players Santos F.C. (South Africa) players