by Nazeem Davids
We continue with the story of Boebie Solomons from where we left off last week, (Legendary soccer son of our Cape Flats soil, 'Boebie' Solomons - Part 1).
In 1980 Boebie, Bernard Hartze and Seraj Abbass were signed to play for the Tampa Bay Rowdies in the North American Professional Soccer League.
Sadly, just weeks before his departure Boebie broke his leg. This dashed his dreams of rubbing shoulders with, and measuring his ability against, soccer greats such as Pele, Eusebio, Johan Cruyff, Johan Neeskens, Gerd Müller and George Best, among others. All these stars were winding down their careers in the American soccer league.
Boebie would never again have the opportunity to show the international world the talent and skill he was blessed with.
Boebie pragmatically says: “It was not meant to be. The year 1980 brought me other great achievements that I was very proud of and very grateful for. I was voted the ‘Federation Player of the year’ for the second year in a row and I steered CT Spurs to the national knock-out trophy. I also captained the Western Region in a national tournament. It was still a very good year.”
In 1982 Boebie, at the behest of long-time mentor and former CT Spurs manager Pettie Dollie, joined the newly-formed Glendene FC professional team as player-coach. He led Glendene to the Federation league trophy in their first year.
He ended 1982 with his inclusion in the SA Council of Sport national non-racial team.
In 1985 Boebie returned to amateur soccer, this time as head coach/player at Thornhill FC, and won the league in his first year. Remarkably, he only got his senior Western Province amateur colours after playing professional soccer for more than 13 years. In 1988 Boebie was voted the WP Football Board Player of the year and the following year he coached WP to victory in the Safa national tournament.
His resume from 1988 includes:
- Winning the PSL and knockout trophies as head coach of Lightbodys Santos FC.
- Head coach of the South African National under 20 team in 1998.
- Winning the BOBSAVE Superbowl trophy of the PSL in 2001 as assistant coach to Clive Barker, the former Bafana coach.
- Winning the Super Challenge Cup on 29 July 2001 (Champion of Champions) in the PSL as assistant coach.
- Winning the PSL title in May 2002 with Santos as assistant coach.
- Winning the PSL BP Top 8 trophy with Santos FC on 14 September 2002 as head coach.
- Winning the ABSA Cup (National Knock Out Trophy) with Santos FC on 31 May 2003 as head coach.
- Winning the Mvela Golden League Championship with Bidvest WITS FC as head coach 2005/2006.
- Winning the Telkom Cup Competition with Bloemfontein Celtic FC as assistant coach 2013/2014.
Boebie ascribes his phenomenal track record to having studied coaching techniques under some of the best coaches in the world.
He holds qualifications from Fifa and Safa and acquired a diploma from the Royal Dutch Coaching Association, the architects of “Total Football”. He trained under the Football Coaches Association in England and followed that up with an Advanced Coaching course in Brazil in November 1998.
In May 2010, Boebie Solomons became the first South African to produce a comprehensive soccer coaching manual, that is being used by budding coaches all over the country. Twelve years later, his love for coaching has not waned one bit.
He is still at it, and serves as Safa’s technical director of coaching in Cape Town, a Safa National technical committee member, a Safa coach educator and Stellenbosch FC technical consultant.
Boebie is passionately committed to imparting his knowledge and guidance to amateurs and professionals alike, and his commitment and passion are the embodiment of “for love for the game”.
I believe we should honour and pay homage to our legends while they are still alive. They deserve to know that they have brought joy to thousands of people and have inspired generations to achieve greatness.
Abubakaar “Boebie” Solomons deserves to know that he was, still is and always will be, a South African hero.
* Nazeem Davids
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
Do you have something on your mind; or want to comment on the big stories of the day? We would love to hear from you. Please send your letters to [email protected].
All letters to be considered for publication, must contain full names, addresses and contact details (not for publication).