Themba Zwane

Sourced facts, dated and on the record. Squad membership, and his club when a source names one. Nothing invented; we don’t make players up.

At a glance

age
36
sourced with the squad
position
Midfield
South Africa
our board
#1405
of 1432 rated players
folded so far
1206′
25 appearances

Sourced

squad: South Africa · Midfieldfootball-data.org · 2026-06-29

Sourced context, nothing more. It never touches a call.

Our rating · the working

the board →

1497 ±45

his quality rating: club, age and measured output. The board orders by this plus his World Cup form, less a discount for how much we can measure him.

How the number is builtopenclose

1547 full roster Elo (+50 from national-team results)

the ± is how settled the number is, more minutes, tighter band

Tier 2, lineups + results, how rich the evidence is, not just how much

at or near his peak, no projected upside from age

Where he starts (his team’s strength, we refuse to invent what we haven’t measured) plus two fixed nudges make the quality rating above; the last line is what national-team results have added since, taking it to his full roster Elo.

starts at South Africa's strengththe fair club-over-national anchor, every player's starting point: 1540
age curve at 36 (midfields' curve)measured from the open archive by our own study (defenders: the published literature's shape), never fitted to our calls: -43
individual skill termour club xG models haven't seen enough of him for a confident read, so nothing is added, never guessed: +0
quality rating · club, age + measured output: 1497
form: national-team results, 25 appearances1206 minutes, weighted by margin, surprise and his match stats, but shared across the XI: +50
full roster Elo · with results: 1547

A forward-only shadow signal, as of 2026-06-11. The skill term comes from our own xG models over the open archive; the rest is earned, recorded per appearance, auditable, never back-filled. It never moves a live call.

The notebook

The lines a beat writer keeps, except every one of ours is read off the ledger above, auditable to the night. Nothing invented.

standing
#1405 of 1432 rated players on our board.
vs his seed
The folded nights have added +50 to the number he seeded with, he has outplayed his own prior.

What he’d cost · our estimate

We don’t price him yet. Our fee model leans on the level he plays at, and no trusted source has given us his club’s strength. We’d rather show nothing than a number we don’t trust.

In our coverage · South Africa’s record

v Canada0–1Called it
v South Korea1–0Missed it
at Czech Republic1–1Missed it
at Mexico2–0Called it

The newsroom’s calls on South Africa. Team-level, never dressed up as a player stat.