In 2004, Benni McCarthy became the first and so far only South African to win the UEFA Champions League, lifting the trophy with Jose Mourinho’s Porto. Two decades on, he is still Bafana Bafana’s all-time leading scorer, with 31 goals to his name.
McCarthy’s path took him from Hanover Park in Cape Town to some of the biggest clubs in Europe, a journey familiar to many South Africans who follow the game through online football betting. Few players from the country have matched his blend of goals and trophies abroad.
In this article, we reflect on the career of a forward who set the standard for South African strikers in Europe.
A teenager on the move
McCarthy started out at Seven Stars and Ajax Cape Town before Ajax signed him in 1997 at the age of 19, taking him to the Eredivisie . He scored nine goals in his debut season to help the Dutch side win the Eredivisie, then moved to Celta Vigo in Spain. A loan spell at Porto followed, where 12 goals in 11 league games hinted at what was to come.
The Porto years
McCarthy made his Porto move permanent in 2003, and the timing could not have been better. He scored two goals against Manchester United in the Champions League, helping knock the English side out on the way to the final. He finished the Primeira Liga season as top scorer with 20 goals in 23 games, sealing the Golden Boot with a hat-trick on the final day.
Porto were crowned European champions in 2004, with McCarthy part of that winning squad. The two-legged victory over Manchester United on the way there is still recalled as one of the high points of South African football abroad.
Goals in the Premier League
A move to Blackburn Rovers in 2006 brought McCarthy to England. He scored 18 league goals in the 2006-07 campaign, among the leading marksmen in the division that season. A spell at West Ham United followed before he returned home to finish his playing days with Orlando Pirates. Across his career he picked up league titles in the Netherlands, Portugal and South Africa.
The Bafana Bafana record
McCarthy made his South Africa debut in 1997 and went on to win 80 caps, scoring 31 goals along the way. His standout early memory came at the 1998 Africa Cup of Nations, when he scored four times in one match against Namibia and finished as the tournament’s top scorer. That record of 31 international goals has stood for more than a decade.
Life in the dugout
Since retiring, McCarthy has built a coaching career. He managed AmaZulu and guided them to a second-place finish, then spent two years as a first-team coach at Manchester United between 2022 and 2024. He chose not to extend that role because he wanted to return to management in his own right. In March 2025 he took charge of the Kenya national team, the next step for one of South Africa‘s most decorated footballers.
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