Matthew Booth (soccer)

Matthew Paul Booth ( born March 14, 1977 in Fish Hoek ) is a South African football player. The defender won the 2000 South African championship and took the South African representative teams participated in several major tournaments.

Club career

Booth began his professional career in 1996 at the Cape Town Spurs. When the club in 1999 with Seven Stars to Ajax Cape Town merged to Booth could not agree on a contract with the new club. The remains of the Spurs were sold by the Ajax to a responsible businessman, who renamed the club in the Mother City. Booth should after no agreement with Ajax Cape Town came about, play in the future for Mother City. Against this resale left Booth with the help of a lawyer for Human Rights complain and finally earned it the release.

He then wrote the reigning champions Mamelodi Sundowns and defended in the following season successfully the title. In 2001 he reached the final of the Mamelodi CAF Champions League but was defeated there in Egypt Al -Ahly Cairo with 0:3 after they separated in the home game at 1-1. In spring 2001, he ventured for the first time to move to Europe, came during his time with the English second division side FC Wimbledon but not used. In the summer of 2002, he moved with his teammates poison Kampamba for Russian club FC Rostov. In 2003 he reached the final of the Russian Cup Rostov, but it lost to Spartak Moscow 0:1.

In summer 2004, Booth moved to league rivals Krylia Sovetov Samara and was there until his departure after the 2008 season, Team Captain. In South Africa, he joined his former club Mamelodi Sundowns.

National

Booth were numerous appearances for the U -20 and U -23 in South Africa. With the U -20, he participated as a captain at the African Youth Championship in 1997 and finished after a 0-1 defeat in the final against Morocco in second place. This success is qualified for the Junior World Championships in 1997 in Malaysia, in which the team failed in the first round after defeats against Brazil and France.

In 1997, he was under its former Spurs coach Jean -Michel d' Avray his debut in the U -23. After injury problems at Ashley Makhanya him the captain's armband was transferred and he led the selection to the bronze medal at the Pan-African Games in 1999 in South Africa and to participate in the Olympic football tournament in 2000 in Australia. There you failed despite a 3-1 success over Brazil in the preliminary round.

His international debut in the South African national team graduated Booth in COSAFA Cup 1999 against Botswana. In early 2002 he was under coach Jomo Sono in the squad at the African Cup of Nations in 2002, but was not used during the tournament. In the summer he should participate with the national team at the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea, but was injured shortly before the tournament and was dropped from the squad.

Three years later he received his next invitation to the national team and played under Stuart Baxter half time against Zambia in COSAFA Cup 2005. Until further inserts it took another three years since 2008, he comes back regularly to missions for Bafana Bafana and belonged to the banns the Confederations Cup 2009. As crowd favorite is accompanied by the stands with a drawn-out " Booooooth " each of his touches of the ball, which he is in the tradition of the earlier performers Lucas Radebe, Mark Fish and John Moshoeu, which also regularly highlighted by the audience chanting were.