Its a bittersweet moment that while the South African football fraternity are still celebrating the appointment of Rulani Mokwena as a Wydad Casablanca head coach, the sad news of the legendary Stanley Screamer Tshabalala was announced.
Bra Screamer is pioneer of black coaches in the country and without his influence, the likes Mokwena, Trott Moloto, Pitso Mosimane, Manqoba Mngqithi and Steve Komphela would probably not have rose to the upper echelon of football management.
Tshabalala crawled so that Mosimane and company could walk. He is credited with Mamelodi Sundowns brand of piano and shoe-shine football that has withstood the test of time since the 1980s.
The Brazilians are revered for their carpet football that has seen them dominate the DStv Premiership with seven successive league titles. None of this success would have been possible without Tshabalala who was affectionately known as Screamer for the way he called for the ball in his playing days at Orlando Pirates.
Simply put, Bra Stan changed the way football was played and he will forever be remembered for being ahead of his time. The world marvels at Pep Guardiola and his tiki-taka football philosophy of dominating ball possession but South Africans saw that kind of approach back in the 80s.
