Brother's memory inspires SA's Williams for World Cup opener

South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa will be hoping to see Ronwen Williams lead Bafana Bafana beyond the group stage for the first time at a World Cup

Football has a habit of throwing up poignant coincidences.

For South Africa and their captain Ronwen Williams, the 2026 Fifa World Cup's opening match against co-hosts Mexico will be one such occasion, mirroring the fixture which began the 2010 tournament hosted by the Africans.

"That's the beauty of sport, of football," said Williams. "I can remember 2010. The atmosphere for that opening game [a 1-1 draw] was electrifying. Everyone behind the country."

For the Mamelodi Sundowns goalkeeper, the occasion in Mexico City will be particularly emotional. His older brother Marvin was killed in a car crash just two months before the 2010 World Cup kicked off.

Ronwen was 18 at the time and briefly considered quitting football. Not doing so proved to be the right call.

"He had so much high hopes for me," Williams told Newsday on the BBC World Service.

"To know I'll be leading out my team in the opening game, I can't put it into words.

"It gives me chills. Sometimes I find myself just laying at night thinking [about] it.

"I always say the two most important games at the World Cup is the opening and the final, and Bafana Bafana is going to be part of one.

"We know the pressure is going to be extremely high, they're not going to make it easy for us. They're going to intimidate us. They're going to have the whole country behind them."

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Although Williams has missed the influence of his brother, he has not been short of family support.

"I can remember when coach Hugo Broos announced me as captain, the family had a gathering," he recalled.

"I still have all those photos and videos, and just to see what it meant to them. I'm sure that joy and pride and happiness has probably doubled, if not tripled, now that I'm going into a World Cup."

For the past five years, Williams has had a new father figure in Broos, the Belgian coach who led Cameroon to the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) title in 2017.

Appointed to lead South Africa in 2021 with Bafana Bafana very much in the doldrums, the 74-year-old immediately made Williams his skipper and has re-energised the squad, leading them to a third-place finish at the 2023 Afcon and ensuring they topped their World Cup qualifying group - booking a place at the tournament for the fourth time.

Williams even goes so far as to say that Broos has "united" the country after bringing "belief and love" back to the team and South Africa itself.

"Two, three years ago we were crying for the supporters to come out and support us. And he mentioned that it goes hand in hand with performance, with results," the 34-year-old added.

"When we started picking up the results, that's when the belief came back.

"Now people can't wait for Bafana Bafana to play. Buying our merch, sending us the well wishes.

South Africa finished above Nigeria in their qualifying group, winning five of their 10 games.

But they went out of the most recent Afcon in the last 16, and after a 2-1 home defeat by Panama in March, Williams is not getting carried away as his team prepare to face Mexico, Czech Republic and South Korea in Group A.