Ronwen Williams nominated at Ballon d’Or Awards
Bafana Bafana captain and Mamelodi Sundowns star, Ronwen Williams makes history by being nominated for the prestigious Yashin Trophy at the Ballon d’Or awards.
Williams was the only African in the 10 nominees for Fifa’s for goalkeeper of the year award.
He is the first goalkeeper to be nominated for the club while playing for an African club. He had 35 clean sheets in 59 games in 2023/2024.
He was named the Best Goalkeeper at AFCON 2023. He had 4 clean sheets at AFCON 2023. He won the African Football League and South African League with Mamelodi Sundowns. He won the 2023 AFCON Bronze medal with South Africa.
The Yashin Trophy nomination places Williams alongside some of the world’s top goalkeepers, including Diogo Costa (FC Porto), Gianluigi Donnarumma (Paris Saint-Germain), Gregor Kobel (Borussia Dortmund), Andriy Lunin (Real Madrid), Mike Maignan (AC Milan), Giorgi Mamardashvili (Valencia), Emiliano Martinez (Aston Villa), Unai Simon (Athletic Bilbao), and Yann Sommer (Inter Milan).
The award, named after legendary Russian goalkeeper Lev Yashin, who remains the only keeper to have won the Ballon d’Or (1963), honours the best goalkeeping talent worldwide. Previous winners of the Yashin Trophy include Emiliano Martinez (2023), Thibaut Courtois (2022), Gianluigi Donnarumma (2021), and Alisson Becker (2019).
