Surprise Mohlomolleng Moriri (born 20 March 1980 in Matibidi,

Mpumalanga Mpumalanga () is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Nguni languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. It shares bor ...

) is a South African former professional

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 lea ...

who used to play as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

or striker. He also represented

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

as an international and amassed 34 caps during his time with the South Africa national team from 2003-2010.

Club career

Moriri was a free-scoring midfielder who was chosen as South Africa's

PSL Player of the Season The PSL Player of the Season in South African football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the ...

in 2005–06. He usually played as a second striker or behind the striker as a supporting or shadow striker. He was also deployed on the right side of midfield. He scored 12 goals in all competitions (11 in the league) to be Sundowns' top scorer and help the 'Brazilians' to their first league title since 2000. In the 2006–07 season he eclipsed that amount, once again scoring eleven league goals to go along with three in the

CAF Champions League The CAF Champions League, known for sponsorship purposes as the TotalEnergies CAF Champions League and formerly the African Cup of Champions Clubs, is an annual football club (association football), club football competition organized by the Conf ...

. The 2007–08 season was a less prolific league campaign for him in which he only managed three league goals. However, he was more successful in other competitions that season, scoring two

Nedbank Cup The Nedbank Cup is the current name of South Africa's Premier Soccer League, premier club association football, soccer knockout tournament. While many formats have been used over the years, the tournament has always been based on the idea of gi ...

goals, one

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 ...

goal, one Tekom Knockout goal, and four CAF Champions League, a total of 11 cup goals. On 18 June 2007, Sundowns played a friendly against

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly known as FC Barcelona and colloquially as Barça (), is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of ...

in South Africa. Moriri scored within one minute and 30 seconds to make it 1–0. After many missed chances from both teams, Barcelona eventually went on to win the game 2–1 after two late goals from substitutes

Santiago Ezquerro Santiago 'Santi' Ezquerro Marín (born 14 December 1976) is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a forward. Having made a name for himself at Athletic Bilbao, appearing in nearly 300 official games for the club in seven year ...

and

Marc Crosas Luque Marc Crosas Luque (born 9 January 1988) is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a defensive midfielder. Crosas is also a football analyst for TUDN. He is a Mexican naturalized citizen. Club career Barcelona Born in Sant Feliu ...

International career

Moriri made his debut in a

friendly match An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, scrimmage, demonstration, training match, pre-season game, warmup match, or preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sport, sporting event whose prize money and impact on th ...

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 8 October 2003. He scored his first goal for

in their 3–0 win over Chad in the MTN Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers. He was in the South African squad for the

2008 African Nations Cup The 2008 Africa Cup of Nations, also known as the MTN Africa Cup of Nations due to the competition's sponsorship by MTN, was the 26th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the biennial football tournament for nations affiliated with the Confeder ...

. He was part of the Bafana Bafana squad for the 2010 World Cup, coming off the bench against Uruguay.

International goals

Honours

;Mameloni Sundowns *

: 2016

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Moriri, Surprise 1980 births Living people South African men's soccer players Men's association football midfielders Men's association football forwards South Africa men's international soccer players 2008 Africa Cup of Nations players Platinum Stars F.C. players Mamelodi Sundowns F.C. players 2010 FIFA World Cup players People from Thaba Chweu Local Municipality 21st-century South African sportsmen CAF Champions League–winning players