{"id":842296,"date":"2025-11-08T20:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=842296"},"modified":"2025-11-07T16:53:42","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T14:53:42","slug":"the-south-african-public-school-that-top-premier-league-and-bundesliga-soccer-players-attended","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/842296\/the-south-african-public-school-that-top-premier-league-and-bundesliga-soccer-players-attended\/","title":{"rendered":"The South African public school that top Premier League and Bundesliga soccer players attended"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Parktown Boys is one of South Africa\u2019s premier public schools, and two of its former students have played soccer professionally in England and Germany’s top-tier soccer leagues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While there is a close to three-decade age difference between them, Bradley Carnell and Lyle Foster are two of South Africa\u2019s most successful footballing exports. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two have combined experience in the UK, Germany, Monaco, Portugal, Canada, the USA and Belgium, with both being old boys of Parktown Boys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parktown Boys traces its history back to 1920, when the school was established on a site now occupied by the SABC in Auckland Park. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1923, the school relocated to its current grounds on Wellington Road, with the original building now designated as a National Monument. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several alumni have become leaders in commerce, academia and international sports, like Carnell and Foster. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The school prides itself on a tradition of sports excellence and has produced a large number of  Springboks and international sportsmen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The school\u2019s summer sports include Cricket, Rowing, Waterpolo and Swimming. Winter sports offered include Athletics, Cross Country, Hockey, Rugby, Shooting and Soccer.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Squash and tennis are offered throughout the entirety of the year, with learners required to participate in at least one summer and one winter activity.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With this focus on sporting excellence, the school has seen Foster and Carnell play in some of the most competitive soccer leagues in the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bradley Carnell<\/h2>\n\n\n
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Carnell was the youngest South African pro-footbatter when he made his debut at just 16 for Wits University. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After scoring against Kaizer Chiefs as a student, he moved to South Africa\u2019s largest club in 1997. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After one year at the Chiefs, he moved to German giants Stuttgart in the Bundesliga. He won the now-defunct UEFA Intertoto Cup in 2000 and 2002 with Stuttgart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He played in Germany for over a decade, with further stints at Borussia M\u00f6nchengladbach, Karlsruher SC, and Hansa Rostock. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He returned to South Africa in 2010 to play for Supersport United before retiring from the game in 2011. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Internationally, he played 42 times for Bafana Bafana between 1997 and 2010, and was selected for the 2002 World Cup. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After hanging up his boots, he moved into coaching, taking over as the Head Coach of the University of Johannesburg. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He then held assistant coach roles at Orlando Pirates and Free State Stars, before heading to the USA to become the assistant coach of the New York Red Bulls in 2017. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He would take over as interim head coach of the New York Red Bulls in 2020, before leaving the club that same year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2022, he was announced as the head coach of MLS newcomer St Louis City. In his first season, the team finished first in the Western Conference and qualified for the 2024 CONCACAF Champions Cup. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite a strong first season, St Louis City struggled during its second season in charge, and he was sacked – a common occurrence for football managers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a brief stint as the assistant coach of the Canada national team in 2024, he took on the head coach role at Philadelphia Union for 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carnell has again seen massive success at Philadelphia Union, having won the MLS Supporters\u2019 Shield, which is given to the team with the best regular season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team beat Lionel Messi\u2019s Inter Miami by one point in the regular season and are currently in the playoffs for the MLS title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having taken Philadelphia Union from 12th in the Eastern Conference in 2024 to first in 2025, he was named the 2025 Sigi Schmid MLS Coach of the Year. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lyle Foster\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n
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While Carnell attended Parktown Boys in the 90s, Foster is a more recent graduate, having been born in 2000.\u00a0While at Parktown Boys, he was called up to the Bafana Bafana under-17 team in 2016.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shortly after, he made his debut for Orlando Pirates in 2017. He was named by the UK-based Guardian as one of the 60 best young talents in world football that same year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2019, Foster signed for Monaco, who had won the Ligue 1 title two seasons prior. He then joined Monaco\u2019s feeder team, Cercle Brugge in Belgium, on a season-long loan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2020, he moved to Portugal\u2019s Vit\u00f3ria de Guimar\u00e3es for a transfer fee of \u20ac1.2 million (R25 million at the time). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After one year with the Portuguese club, he moved to Westerlo in Belgium on a season-long loan, making the move permanent in 2022. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After impressing with Westerlo, he moved to Burnley in January 2023 in a record deal for a South African at \u20ac7 million (R125 million), which rose to \u20ac10 million (R180 million) after the club was promoted to the Premier League. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Burnley would be relegated in the 2023\/24 season, but came second on goal difference in the second tier in 2024\/25, marking a return to the Premier League. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the current Premier League season, Foster has scored two goals and given one assist in the eight games he has played. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Images of Parktown Boys<\/h2>\n\n\n
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Parktown Boys’ alumni includes Bradley Carnell and Lyle Foster who are both making major marks in international soccer leagues. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":842299,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[24023],"class_list":["post-842296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-parktown-boys"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=842296"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":842386,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842296\/revisions\/842386"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/842299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=842296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=842296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=842296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}