Mbulelo Mabizela

Early professional career

Mabizela was born in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal. He started his career using his mother's surname Oldjohn, but later preferred to be known as Mabizela, the surname of his father, Dumisani, who also played soccer for AmaZulu. As the youngest player to captain the South Africa national team, his surname Oldjohn was often referred as a nickname. Mabizela began his senior club career with Maritzburg City in the National First Division, later joining Orlando Pirates.

Europe

In August 2003, Mabizela joined Tottenham Hotspur after inspiring Pirates to a 2–1 win over Tottenham when the London club made a short tour of South Africa before the start of the 2003–04 season. He scored his only goal for the club on his debut after coming on as a substitute in a league match against Leicester City in October 2003. In October 2004, he had his contract cancelled by Tottenham Hotspur and was released by mutual agreement following several disciplinary infractions, including missing training sessions. He made only nine appearances in total for the club, scoring one goal. Mabizela was invited to train with London-based club Fulham after his release, but was rejected by the club supposedly after being considered overweight. He joined Norwegian club Vålerenga in March 2005, six months after being without club and spent a season at the Norwegian club where he played infrequently and won the national title.

Return to South Africa

In August…

Mabizela was first called to the South Africa national team by Carlos Queiroz in November 2001 after only 3 months of PSL experience as a late replacement to Nasief Morris for a friendly match against Egypt, against who he made his debut as a right-back. He had a poor performance as a right-back during the 2002 Africa Cup of Nations and was left out of the 2002 FIFA World Cup squad coached by Jomo Sono. He was recalled in September 2002 by Ephraim Mashaba as a centre-back, earning back his place in the international squad and in June 2003 he was the youngest captain ever for the national team with the age of 22. He scored a brace against Cape Verde during the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification. His last match for the national team was in 2008 against Nigeria during the 2010 FIFA World Cup and Africa Cup of Nations qualification. He was dropped from the national squad after going AWOL from the national squad in October 2008 before a match against Malawi. Mabizela went back to the headlines in January 2010 after claiming to be "better" than other defender that were in the national side, a view that was shared by commentators and fans. However, manager Carlos Alberto Parreira was unmoved by the comments and stressed that the behaviour of the players was part of the decision of the selection. He later wrote a letter of apology requesting to be given another chance but was never called to the national side again.

In 2018 Mabizela obtained his Safa coaching D-licence qualification and was coaching at the Local Football Association in KwaZulu-Natal.

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