Neil Tovey

Neil Tovey

Personal information
Full name	Neil Robert Tovey
Date of birth	(1962-07-02) 2 July 1962
Place of birth	Pretoria, South Africa
Height
Position(s)	Central defender
Youth career
1979–1981	Juventus Durban
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1981–1985	Durban City	174	(17)
1986–1989	AmaZulu	117	(14)
1990–1999	Kaizer Chiefs	341	(27)
Total		634	(58)
International career
1992–1997	South Africa	52	(0)
Managerial career
1998–1999	Kaizer Chiefs (player-assistant coach)
2000–2001	Mamelodi Sundowns
2001–2002	AmaZulu
2003–2004	Hellenic
2005–2006	Mamelodi Sundowns
2009–2010	AmaZulu
2010	Mpumalanga Black Aces
2011–2012	Thanda Royal Zulu
2015-	South Africa (Technical Director)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Neil Tovey (born 2 April 1962) is a former South African footballer and now a coach. He was born in Pretoria. He holds the record for most appearances in the National Soccer League.

Early career

Tovey was born in Pretoria but grew up in Durban. He had been playing soccer since 1969. He aspired to be a doctor before opting to play professional football. His brother Mark who was also a footballer used to give him football lessons. He was also coached at junior level at Juventus Durban by Clive Barker.

Club career

Durban City

He made his professional debut for Durban City in 1981 and won the 1982 and 1983 NPSL titles under Clive Barker and played 176 league games.

AmaZulu

He played for AmaZulu between 1986 and 1989 and played 117 league games.

Kaizer Chiefs

He joined Chiefs in 1990 and took over captaincy from Howard Freese in 1992 wearing the number 9 jersey. In the same season, Tovey got a record 52 starts which is still a record. He was converted to defence by Philippe Troussier. He led Chiefs to cup victory scored two very important goals in the Rothmans Cup against QwaQwa Stars and Umtata Bush Bucks. He played 341 league games for Chiefs. He played 362 matches and scored 32 goals in all competitions. In the very last match of his career and his last two touches Chiefs colours resulted in a goal in a 5–1 win over Dynamos on 9 June 1999.

International career

Tovey is a former player of the South Africa national football team, and won 52 caps for the national side without scoring a goal. He captained the team 29 times.

Coaching career

Tovey coached Banyana Banyana to COSAFA Cup victory in 2002. Tovey saved Hellenic from relegation in the 2003–04 season. He got his UEFA A licence with a 90% pass in Henef, Germany which were the best marks since 1998. On 27 June 2015 Tovey became technical director of South Africa national football team.

Personal life

Tovey lives in Johannesburg with his wife and has three children. On 23 February 2015, Tovey was admitted to ICU after suffering from three heart attacks during a game of squash.

External links

• Neil Tovey at National-Football-Teams.com