Keep your eye on the ball: Cape Town
Thursday 29 April 2010 10:51
A Green Point of view from Cape Town
In a matter of weeks, this diverse melting pot of 1.3 million people will welcome fans from all over the world. Read more
Cape Town is home to some of the finest footballers South Africa has known. Benny McCarthy, European champion with Porto and now at West Ham in England, Quinton Fortune, also a winner with Manchester United and Shaun Bartlett, a veteran who played for Zurich and Charlton. In a matter of weeks, this diverse melting pot of 1.3 million people will welcome fans from all over the world.
Table Mountain pontificates 1.086 metres above the city where the sea and the hills meet. The thousands of visitors expected to descend on the city in July will be attracted by the history with a visit to Robben Island, the prison where Nelson Mandela was held for 18 years before being released in 1990 as well as the popular beaches and Victoria and Alfred Waterfront.
The nearby region of the Western Cape is the perfect sniff for those who like wine tasting. The area where the city was built was a hunting ground 100,000 years BC but with the arrival of European sailors in 1952, it became a haven on the African coast and a vital stop on the route to India.
Premier league clubs Ajax and Santos pay tribute to the legends of Johan Cruyff and Pele, who played for clubs with the same name in their old days in Holland and Brazil. Ajax Cape Town run an academy that have produced players like Steven Pienaar, the Everton star and South Africa’s captain. Benny McCarthy also launched his career at the Ajax academy. Four local clubs compete in the lower divisions: Ikapa Sporting, FC Cape Town, Hannover Park and Vasco da Gama.
Cape Town’s new Green Point stadium, now called Cape Town Stadium is built in one of the most sought after areas of the city in what was once a golf course and should be full with 68,000 spectators when it stages one of the 2010 World Cup semi-finals.
A typical African breakfast in Gugulethu Township, just outside town, can be a unique experience. A stop in the Cape Flats area where McCarthy and Fortune were born is also worth a visit. Cape Town can’t wait for the World Cup to start. It offers the opportunity for South Africa to show to the world it can stage a big event. That is the real prize at stake. If the Bafana Bafana can shine at this years event, South Africa will bask in their reflected glory.
What is the name of the famous mountain that dominates the skyline in Cape Town?
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