Janine Van Wyk says it was wonderful meeting Ahmed Hassan in person – the man whose 11-year-old record as the most capped African player she broke.
The former JVW FC and Banyana-Banyana captain officially hung her boots domestically at the end of the 2023 Hollywoodbets season and internationally in the 2024 CAF Women’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers a few weeks ago. She beat Ahmed Hassan’s record of 184 caps on her way out of the game.
The two met at the 2023 CAF Awards in Marrakech this week, with Van Wyk telling the South African Football Journalists Association (SAFJA) on Thursday that the Egyptian legend was pleased that finally someone broke his record.
“Meeting Ahmed it was on a very casual occasion,” Van Wyk told SAFJA.
“We were sitting around the hotel. All the CAF legends were put in one hotel and he was there at the pool area and someone recognised both of us being in the same facility at that moment and we actually got to meet each other.”
“And they told him that I was the one that surpassed his record of 184 appearances and his words were ‘finally someone done that after so long’. He was a very humble guy. We chatted for a while and he asked me a little bit about my career and so on. So yeah, it was a very casual talk, a very humble guy and he was happy himself that after so many years, 11 years, you know, someone got to surpass his record.”
