Bafana Bafana in Britain: Ranking South Africa’s English Premier League Stars

For South African footballers, the Premier League has always been both a dream and a test. Only a handful have made it across and even fewer have stayed long enough to matter. The Common Sense ranks all 16 players and decides who has been our best export to the premier league.

16. Khanya Leshabela: Apps 1, Goals 0

Leshabela has one Premier League outing, an 11-minute cameo for Leicester in a 5-0 win over Sheffield United in 2021. Leicester was a top-six challenger at that point, which is a nice line on the CV, but with only a single appearance he must sit at the foot of any ranking that is driven mainly by minutes and contribution.

15. Tokelo Rantie: Apps 3, Goals 0

Rantie’s Premier League footprint is small. He made three league appearances for Bournemouth, without scoring, between 2013 and 2016. Most of his impact for the club (who he played for 44 times in all) came in the Championship. He did reach the Premier League, and got minutes in a side that was trying to establish itself, but by our criteria, he has to stay near the bottom.

14. Percy Tau: Apps 3, Goals 0

Tau finally got his chance at Brighton after a long work permit saga, but he only played three Premier League games in 2021, with a single assist and no goals. Brighton was a tidy mid-table outfit at the time, but Tau’s lack of gametime keeps him low on our list.

13. Matty Pattison: Apps 10, Goals 0

Pattison made 10 Premier League appearances for Newcastle between 2005 and 2008, mostly from the bench, before moving to Norwich in the Championship. Newcastle is a sizeable club, and he featured in a team that finished seventh in one of his seasons, but 10 games and no goals leaves him in the lower third of our list.

12. Mbulelo Mabizela: Apps 7, Goals 1

Mabizela arrived at Tottenham with real hype and in flashes showed why. He only played seven Premier League matches between 2003 and 2005, but one of them produced a famous long-range goal at Leicester. Spurs at that time was a solid upper mid-table side. The quality of the club, and the memory of that one strike, nudge him above players with slightly more minutes but less impact.

11. Eric Tinkler: Apps 25, Goals 2

Tinkler had one Premier League season with Barnsley, making 21 starts and four substitute appearances, and scoring two goals from central midfield. Barnsley was relegated that year, so the club and defensive context are weaker, but he was a regular in the side and chipped in from distance often enough that his numbers are respectable for a one-season stay.

10. Lyle Foster: Apps 36, Goals 7

Foster is still active and his ranking could climb. Thirty-six Premier League games for Burnley and seven goals so far. Burnley is a smaller club fighting at the bottom end of the table, but Foster has been a key player for the side. If he stays in the division, and keeps scoring, he could move higher on our list.

9. Kagisho Dikgacoi: Apps 39, Goals 0

Dikgacoi is the classic screening midfielder. Thirty-nine league games across Fulham and Crystal Palace between 2009 and 2014, most of them as a starter in Palace’s survival season after promotion in 2013/14. No goals, which is fine given his job description, and the clubs were mid-table rather than elite, but he did play an important functional role in those sides.

8. Phil Masinga: Apps 31, Goals 5

Masinga’s window at Leeds was short, only 31 league games, but he scored five times and did it at a club with real weight in the mid-1990s. Those Leeds sides were European contenders, and he was part of the bridge that brought both him and countryman Lucas Radebe over. The appearance count keeps him out of the top tier, yet his combination of goals and club size still earns a strong place on the list.

7. Aaron Mokoena: Apps 124, Goals 0

Mokoena spent his Premier League time at Blackburn Rovers and Portsmouth, from 2005 to 2012, as a centre back and central defensive midfielder. He did not score in the league, but he was a regular in two honest, competitive teams and played a lot of minutes against the big six. On a pure appearances and defensive role basis, he is just behind the very best defenders on this list, and ahead of the shorter stay names.

6. Mark Fish: Apps 124, Goals 4, 23 clean sheets in the Premier League for Charlton

Fish splits his Premier League career between Bolton and a very solid Charlton team in the 1990s. He played in 124 league games, scored four goals as a centre back, and recorded 23 Premier League clean sheets while on the pitch for Charlton alone, with more at Bolton on top of that. His very strong defensive record at respectable clubs puts him firmly in the top six overall.

5. Quinton Fortune: Apps 82, Goals 5

Fortune’s total is lower than Fish or Mokoena’s, but most of his 82 league matches came in title-winning Manchester United teams, with a small tail at Bolton. He played in the Premier League from 1999 to 2007. He covered left back and midfield, scored five goals and was trusted in some big games. Playing for United at the turn of the century is as big as it gets, which lifts him above players with similar, or slightly higher, appearance counts at smaller sides.

4. Shaun Bartlett: Apps 123, Goals 24

Bartlett gave Charlton a genuine top-flight number nine. Over six seasons (2001 to 2006) he produced 24 Premier League goals in a steady mid-table side. The appearances are well over the 100 mark, the goals per game record is good, and although Charlton was not a big six club tit was a stable Premier League outfit at the time.

3. Benni McCarthy: Apps 120, Goals 37

Benni is easily the most prolific South African striker in Premier League history. One hundred and twenty league matches and 37 goals, almost all of them for Blackburn, including a season with 18 league goals. That is elite output for a club of Blackburn’s size in that era, and he also had a short spell at West Ham. On attacking criteria, he is in a class of his own and only the appearance gap and club stature factor keep him behind the top two.

2. Lucas Radebe: Apps 197, Goals 0, clean sheets 57

Radebe is the defensive benchmark. Nearly 200 league games for Leeds between 1994 and 2005, more than 50 clean sheets while he was on the pitch, and captain of a side that finished third, reached the Champions League semi-finals and was one of the best defences in the country at its peak.

1. Steven Pienaar: Apps 214, Goals 20

Across Everton, Tottenham, and Sunderland, and from 2007 to 2017, Pienaar played more Premier League matches than any other South African and did it mostly in top-half Everton sides that regularly pushed for Europe. He was the creative heartbeat at Goodison, produced a huge volume of chances, and scored enough from midfield to back that up. The combination of minutes, influence and the level Everton operated at in his best years makes him the clear number one in this ranking.

South African Soccer is on the rise. Bafana Bafana reached the quarter finals of AFCON 2019, then in 2024 finished third at AFCON 2023 in Ivory Coast, beating DR Congo on penalties in the bronze match for their first medal since 2000.

That run has been backed up by good performances in qualifying for the next Football World Cup. Under Hugo Broos South Africa topped their CAF group ahead of Nigeria to qualify directly for the expanded tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico. For the current and next generation of South Africans trying to follow Pienaar, Radebe, and McCarthy into the world’s top league the future looks bright, and we expect many more players to make it onto this list in the next few years.