ARMA CHAIR CRITIC: AN ODE TO SOCCER WRITER SY LERMAN
Perhaps it would be a travesty of justice and a lack of appreciation if I personally don’t pen an ode to the late former soccer writer Sy Lerman, who passed away on 30 August 2026 after six decades as a soccer journalist in South Africa.
I must admit upfront that Lerman’s enthralling, awe-inspiring and heartfelt writing style has greatly inspired the way I personally write my stories, articles and opinion pieces.
I was introduced to Sy Lerman’s soccer columns by my late father Alfred Mothiba, who would always send me and my brothers to go and get him a copy of the now-defunct Rand Daily Mail newspaper sold at the local shops or street corner.
Lerman is one of the writers who could easily infuse poetry, logic, criticism and analysis all in one in his soccer columns.
He was a gifted soccer writer the likes of which will never be surpassed any time soon here in South Africa and even overseas.
Many soccer writers are merely content in telling us what the score of the match was; who played in which position, who was substituted and who scored etc.
But Sy Lerman, in his column, would give you an account that would make you feel like you were actually watching the game he was describing.
He won the 1978 Sportswriter of the Year and in 1992 his harsh but honest criticism led to the then Bafana Bafana coach Screamer Tshabalala punching him out of frustration.
“Don’t scream, just go!”
That’s the newspaper headline penned by Lerman which eventually put him in trouble with the irritable Screamer Tshabalala, who was subsequently fired as Bafana Bafana coach for assaulting Lerman.
And I still remember his eulogy to slain Moroka Swallows defender Aaron ” Roadblock” Makhathini, who had been gunned down in Soweto in 1985, apparently for leading a breakaway team from the selfsame NSL-affliated Moroka Swallows with the intention of registering it with the rival NPSL professional soccer body.
“I can dream about you,” read Lerman’s headline in his Rand Daily Mail soccer column dubbed “Talking Soccer,” in memory of the murdered Makhathini.
The headline had been borrowed from the title of the song “I can dream about you,” by USA singer Dan Hartman, which was a hit song between 1984 and 1985 in South Africa.
Lerman joins an avalanche of many other South African artful writers who have also departed this world for the hereafter:
Percy Qoboza former City Press editor, Elliot Makhaya former Sowetan showbiz writer, Obed Musi who was a scribe at the City Press as well as Can Themba of Drum Magazine.
And when he meets the aforesaid men they, together with the gods of artful writing, will smile at him, embrace him and shout deliriously in unison:
“Welcome home brother…we did it! “
