Shaun Bartlett (born 31 October 1972) is a South African professional

football manager ''Football Manager'', also known as ''Worldwide Soccer Manager'' in North America from 2004 to 2008, is a series of football management simulation video games developed by British developer Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game beg ...

and former

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who i ...

who is the manager of Cape Town Spurs. During his playing career, he played as a striker.

Early life

Born in

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

, Bartlett was raised by his grandmother in Factreton on the Cape Flats. He began playing for his church team and quickly developed a deft striking ability on the field. He was also a talented

cricketer Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

Club career

Bartlett began his career with his hometown Cape Town Spurs and then moved to

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

and the

Colorado Rapids The Colorado Rapids are an American professional Association football, soccer club based in the Denver metropolitan area. The Rapids compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. Founded in ...

in the league's inaugural season in 1996. Halfway through the 1997 season, he was traded to the MetroStars on 10 July. Bartlett left MLS, without leaving much of a mark and returned to his home country. He later went on loan to FC Zürich and then transferring there for good in 1998. He went on loan to Charlton Athletic in 2000, and moved there in 2001 on a permanent deal worth £2 million. Bartlett won the

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

Goal of the Season award in 2000–01, for his volley against Leicester City. He was released by the club in May 2006. Bartlett then returned to South Africa signing with Kaizer Chiefs and in the summer of 2008 retired from professional football. After several discussions, he then made a return to football with Bloemfontein Celtic.

International career

Bartlett made his full international debut for the South Africa national team in a friendly against

Lesotho Lesotho, formally the Kingdom of Lesotho and formerly known as Basutoland, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Entirely surrounded by South Africa, it is the largest of only three sovereign enclave and exclave, enclaves in the world, t ...

on 26 April 1995. He is the second all-time leading scorer behind Benni McCarthy for South Africa, with 29 goals in 74 appearances. He helped his country to the 1996 African Nations Cup and played in the

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 1 ...

, scoring two goals.

Managerial career

Bartlett coached Golden Arrows to the National First Division title in the 2014/15 season. He went on to play a crucial role as Kaizer Chiefs assistant coach in turning around the club from a ninth-place finish in the 2018/19 season to topping the table for most of the following season. In October 2021, Bartlett was appointed as manager of National First Division side Cape Town Spurs. After leading them to promotion, Spurs parted ways with Bartlett after seven consecutive defeats at the start of the 2023–24 season.

Personal life

Bartlett's wedding was attended by

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela ( , ; born Rolihlahla Mandela; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist and politician who served as the first president of South Africa f ...

. To avoid excess attention, only he and his bride knew that the politician was coming. Bartlett's son, Tyrique is also a footballer.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list South Africa's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Bartlett goal.''

Honours

Player

FC Zürich *

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup competition that has been organised annually since 1925–26 season by the Swiss Football Association. The Swiss Cup final is usually the most important game of the year with a high attendance. The co ...

: 2000 Kaizer Chiefs * Telkom Knockout: 2007 *

MTN 8 The MTN 8 is a South African soccer single-elimination tournament, cup competition launched in 1972 for teams who finished in the top 8 positions of the league table of the country's preceding season of the top-flight league (currently the Sout ...

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

South Africa *

African Cup of Nations The Africa Cup of Nations, commonly abbreviated as AFCON and officially known as the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, is the main biennial international men's association football competition in Africa. It is s ...

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

Individual * BBC Goal of the Season: 2000–01

Manager

Golden Arrows * National First Division: 2014–15 Cape Town Spurs * DSTV Premiership Promotional Playoffs: 2022-23

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bartlett, Shaun Living people 1972 births South African men's soccer players South Africa men's international soccer players South African expatriate men's soccer players Vasco da Gama F.C. players Colorado Rapids players New York Red Bulls players Charlton Athletic F.C. players Premier League players Major League Soccer players 1996 African Cup of Nations players 2000 African Cup of Nations players 2002 African Cup of Nations players 1998 FIFA World Cup players FC Zürich players Soccer players from Cape Town Men's association football forwards Kaizer Chiefs F.C. players Swiss Super League players Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland Cape Coloureds Bloemfontein Celtic F.C. players South African expatriate sportspeople in England South African expatriate sportspeople in the United States South African expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland South African soccer managers