Matthew Booth

Matthew Booth
Booth in the dress of Samara (2008)
Personnel
Surname	Matthew Paul Booth
birthday	March 14, 1977
place of birth	Fish Hoek ,  South Africa
size	199 cm
position	Defense
Juniors
Years	station
	Fish Hoek AFC
1994-1996	Cape Town Spurs
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1996-1999	Cape Town Spurs	101 (5)
1999-2002	Mamelodi Sundowns	91 (5)
2001	→  Wimbledon FC  (loan)	0 (0)
2002-2004	FK Rostov	52 (1)
2004-2008	Krylya Sovetov Samara	107 (7)
2009-2011	Mamelodi Sundowns	38 (0)
2011-2013	Ajax Cape Town	40 (5)
2013-2014	Bidvest Wits	19 (1)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1995-1997	South Africa U-20	18 (0)
1997-2000	South Africa U-23	35 (2)
1999-2010	South Africa	28 (1)
1 Only league games are given. Status: end of career

Matthew Paul Booth (born March 14, 1977 in Fish Hoek ) is a former South African football player . He plays a total of 159 games in the Russian Premier League . The defender won the South African championship in 2000 and participated in several major tournaments with South African national teams.

Club career

Booth began his professional career in 1996 with the Cape Town Spurs . When the club merged with Seven Stars to form Ajax Cape Town in 1999 , Booth could not agree on a contract with the new club. The remains of the Spurs were sold by Ajax officials to a businessman who renamed the club Mother City. Booth was supposed to play for Mother City in the future after no agreement was reached with Ajax Cape Town. With the help of a human rights lawyer, Booth filed a lawsuit against this resale and finally fought for clearance.

He then signed with the reigning champions Mamelodi Sundowns and successfully defended the title in the following season. In 2001 he reached the final of the CAF Champions League with Mamelodi but was defeated there in Egypt al Ahly Cairo with 0: 3, after they separated 1: 1 in the home game. In the spring of 2001 he ventured to Europe for the first time, but was not used during his time at the English second division club FC Wimbledon . In the summer of 2002 he and his teammate Gift Kampamba moved to the Russian club FK Rostow . In 2003 he reached the final of the Russian Cup with Rostov , but lost to Spartak Moscow 1-0.

In the summer of 2004, Booth moved to league competitor Krylja Sowetow Samara and was there until his departure after the 2008 season, team captain. In South Africa he joined his former club Mamelodi Sundowns. He played there until 2011 when he moved to Ajax Cape Town . After a season at Bidvest Wits , he ended his career in 2014.

National team

Booth came to numerous missions for the U-20 and U-23 selection of South Africa. With the U-20s, he took part as captain of the 1997 African Youth Championship and finished second after a 1-0 defeat in the final against Morocco. This success qualified for the 1997 Junior World Cup in Malaysia, where the team failed in the preliminary round after losing to Brazil and France.

In 1997 he made his U-23 debut under his former Spurs coach Jean-Michel d'Avray . After injury problems at Ashley Makhanya he was transferred to the captain's armband and he led the selection to the bronze medal at the Pan-African Games in South Africa in 1999 and to participate in the 2000 Olympic football tournament in Australia. There they failed in the preliminary round despite a 3-1 win over Brazil.

Booth made his international debut in the South African senior team in the 1999 COSAFA Cup against Botswana. In early 2002 he was under national coach Jomo Sono in the squad at the 2002 African Cup of Nations, but was not used during the tournament. In the summer he was supposed to take part with the national team in the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea, but injured himself shortly before the start of the tournament and was removed from the list.

It was only three years later that he received his next invitation to the national team and played one half against Zambia in the 2005 COSAFA Cup under Stuart Baxter . It took another three years for him to appear again, and since 2008 he has been playing for Bafana Bafana more regularly and was part of the 2009 Confederations Cup . As a crowd favorite, each of his ball contacts is accompanied by a long “booooooth” from the stands, which is in the tradition of the former top performers Lucas Radebe , Mark Fish and John Moshoeu , who were also regularly highlighted by the audience with chants.

Web links

• Matthew Booth in the database of National-Football-Teams.com (English)
• Booth's personal homepage

Individual evidence

1. ↑ iol.co.za: 'Booooooth' to make his presence felt (June 25, 2009) ( Memento of the original from October 5, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ reuters.com: Fans come to praise Booth, not to boo him (June 16, 2009)