South Africa

South African football spent decades divided by apartheid, with leagues split by race and the country banned from the world game until 1992. Readmission brought an instant fairy tale: Bafana Bafana won the 1996 AFCON at home, in their first ever appearance. The Premier Soccer League was born that same year and is ruled by the Soweto giants, Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates, with Mamelodi Sundowns dominating the recent era and winning the African Champions League in 2016. In 2010 the country hosted the first World Cup on African soil, to the sound of vuvuzelas. It is a football of stands that sing and dance, where the support matters as much as the game, and Bloemfontein Celtic was its greatest example.