Bafana Legend Scores Gig With German Club

Former Bafana Bafana winger Delron Buckley has been announced as an ambassador of Bundesliga 2 side Arminia Bielefeld.

Buckley, 45, has extensive knowledge about Germany football, having played for Bielefeld, Borussia Dortmund, VFL Bochum, who was the first club that signed him in 1996 when he was 18 years old, Mainz and Karlsruher SC.

“We very proud to announce a new partnership and the next step in our internationalisation process and introduce Delron Buckley as our ambassador in South Africa,” Bielefeld CEO Christoph Wortmann said.

“It’s the next step in South Africa, not the first step. We want to be sustainable in South Africa and also have a partnership with Maritzburg United.

“Now, we also have a face in South Africa and are looking forward to our cooperation.”

Buckley added: “I had my best football here in Bielefeld, I was the second-highest goalscorer in that season 2004/05. Good memories, I got married here, my first daughter was born here.”

Bielefeld are exploring the South African market after also striking a partnership with Maritzburg United in January 2022, when coach Ernst Middendorp was still in charge of the club.

Middendorp, who is now back in Germany with Meppen, has coached Bielefeld three times and also lead them to the Bundesliga in 1996. In 2005, when Arminia were celebrating their 100-year anniversary, Middendorp was elected their “Coach of the Century”.

Arminia is also the club that Sibusiso Zuma, Siyabonga Nkosi and Ronwen Fernandez previously played for in the German Bundesliga.

After 16 years in Germany, Buckley returned to South Africa, joining Maritzburg United when Middendorp was in charge of the club, making his debut against University of Pretoria in August 2012.

It didn’t take long for him to find the back of the net for Maritzburg, scoring twice against all conquering Mamelodi Sundowns in September at Lucas Moripe Stadium.

Interestingly, that was the last time Maritzburg defeated the Tshwane giants in the league in Pretoria.  

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Internationally, Buckley featured in 72 matches for Bafana, scoring 10 goals. He was part of the South Africa squad that featured in its first World Cup in 1998 in France and was again part of the squad in 2002.

He was also part of the Bafana side that claimed the bronze medal in the AFCON finals in 2000, and was at the editions in 2002, 2006 and 2008.

Buckley was also part of the Bafana squad for the 2009 FIFA Confederation Cup. When he was included in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, he became the first player from Mzansi to be involved in three World Cups, though he didn’t play one games at the tournament in South Africa.

Since retiring from the beautiful game, Buckley has started coaching and was recently in charge of the University of KwaZulu-Natal during last year’s Varsity Football campaign.

Story by Robin Duke & David Kappel.