{"id":206,"date":"2009-06-29T08:18:27","date_gmt":"2009-06-29T08:18:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amagep.co.za\/en\/2009\/06\/29\/mandela-wishes-bafana-luck-ahead-of-semi-finals\/"},"modified":"2009-06-29T08:18:27","modified_gmt":"2009-06-29T08:18:27","slug":"mandela-wishes-bafana-luck-ahead-of-semi-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amagep.co.za\/en\/mandela-wishes-bafana-luck-ahead-of-semi-finals\/","title":{"rendered":"Mandela wishes Bafana luck ahead of semi-finals"},"content":{"rendered":"<pre><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\" size-full wp-image-194\" src=\"https:\/\/amagep.co.za\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/1245270565-a.jpg\" border=\"0\" width=\"210\" height=\"151\" \/><\/pre>\n<pre>Former South African president Nelson Mandela met the national team on<br \/>Wednesday to wish them luck on the eve of their Confederations Cup<br \/>semi-final against Brazil.<br \/><\/pre>\n<p> <!--more--> <\/p>\n<pre>The 90-year-old Nobel peace laureate greeted the players, who presented<br \/>him with a green Bafana Bafana jersey that had his name stitched on the<br \/>back.<br \/> South Africa coach Joel Santana later spoke eloquently about what the<br \/>meeting with Mandela had meant to him and his team.<br \/> \"It was a historic moment, Nelson Mandela is a worldwide symbol. We all<br \/><br \/>got goose bumps when we met him,\" the Brazilian told a press conference at<br \/>Ellis Park.<br \/> Santana added: \"Nelson Mandela is a supremely charismatic person. His<br \/>presence and the way he spoke to us conveyed a great deal of tranquility<br \/>to us.<br \/> \"I thought I'd seen it all in my life but I hadn't - I feel extremely<br \/>proud to have had this opportunity and the players feel the same.\"<br \/>South Africa captain Aaron Mokoena echoed Santana's sentiments, saying:<br \/>\"It was a special moment meeting the old man.<br \/>\"He wished us all in turn 'good luck'. His presence and calmness is<br \/>unbelievable, that's something we have to take to the game tomorrow.<br \/> \"As a player you can get nervous when you're playing a game like this,<br \/>but his calmness will help a lot.\"<br \/> After taking office following the fall of apartheid, Mandela harnessed<br \/>the popularity of sport in South Africa to press his message of racial<br \/>reconciliation.<br \/>He famously donned the jersey of the Springbok rugby team, a sport<br \/>especially popular among whites, to hand the 1995 World Cup trophy to the<br \/>captain, an image that became a symbol of the new South Africa.<\/pre>\n<pre>\u00a0<\/pre>\n<pre>Source <\/pre>\n<pre><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cafonline.com\/football\/news\/2975-mandela-wishes-bafana-luck-ahead-of-semi-finals.html\" title=\"www.france24.com\">France24.com\u00a0<\/a><\/pre>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former South African president Nelson Mandela met the national team onWednesday to wish them luck&#8230;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":194,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amagep.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amagep.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amagep.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amagep.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amagep.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amagep.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amagep.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amagep.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amagep.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amagep.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}