Lucas Radebe

Lucas Radebe (born 4 December 1969) is a former South African soccer player and national team captain.

Radebe was born in the Diepkloof section of Soweto, near Johannesburg, as one of eleven children. When he was 15 years old he was sent to the "bantustan" of Bophuthatswana by his parents in order to keep him away from the violence that was affecting Soweto during the apartheid era. In order to keep himself busy during his stay in Bophuthatswana, Radebe played soccer (as a goalkeeper).

He was later spotted and signed by the Kaizer Chiefs Football Club as a midfielder. In 1991 he was shot while walking down the street, although not critically. The motive for the shooting never became clear, but Radebe himself believes that someone had been hired to shoot him in order to prevent him from moving to another club.

Radebe was first included in the South Africa national football team in 1992.

Partially motivated by the shooting incident, Lucas and another South African player, Philemon “Chippa” Masinga, moved to Leeds United in 1994; Radebe was sold by for GBP 250,000. In 1996, he was a member of the South African team that won the African Nations Cup.

Radebe became a star player for Leed and was nicknamed "The Chief" by its fans. In recognition of his leadership and ability, Radebe was appointed as captain of the team for the 1998/1999 soccer season. Radebe was also the captain of the South African national soccer team (nicknamed the Bafana Bafana) in the 1998 Football World Cup.

As captain of Leeds, Radebe was very successful: in the 1998/1999 season, Leeds finished fourth in the Premier League, thus qualifying for the UEFA Cup. During the 1999/2000 season, Leed finished third in the Premier League and qualified for the Champions League, where they made it through to the semi-finals.

In 2000, Radebe sustained knee and ankle injuries, which kept him out of soccer for almost two years. After his recovery, he captained South Africa in the 2002 Football World Cup. Radebe has also been an ambassador of FIFA for SOS Children’s Villages; he also received the FIFA Fair Play Award in December 2000 for his contribution in ridding soccer of racism as well as for his work with children in South Africa.

Radebe has now (2004) retired from international soccer but still plays for Leeds United. He was voted 54th in the Top 100 Great South Africans (see List of South Africans) in 2004.