Nasreddine Nabi, Relebohile Mofokeng, Floyd Shivambu, Rhulani Mokwena, Gayton McKenzie and the greatest Mzansi football hits of 2024

In mid-May, as Amakhosi's season fizzled out after a 5-0 mauling by Sundowns and a run of no wins, two defeats and three draws in their last five league matches, a statement appeared on The Glamour Boys official website that the club chairman was going to announce the appointment of their new permanent head coach.

Much excitement ensued on GOAL as long-suffering fans believed their trophyless torment could be over, but it soon turned out the statement had been released in error (or was a 'hack' depending on which story you believed) and fans had to wait until July 11 for the formal announcement of Nasreddine Nabi's appointment.

After a promising start results started to turn against the Tunisian in late October and it remains to be seen if he is the man to turn around Chiefs fortunes.

Towards the end of January South Africa were riding high at Afcon 2023 in Ivory Coast.

Bafana had emerged unbeaten from a tough Group E but drew tournament favourites Morocco in the Round of 16.

Makgopa put Bafana ahead after 57 minutes and it looked like South Africa would hold on to victory until The Atlas Lions won a late penalty and PSG star Achraf Hakimi stepped up... and missed.

Then, right at the death, Sofyan Amrabat was red carded for a 'last man' foul and from that freekick, Teboho Mokoena sealed victory in the 95th minute.

Afterwards, a gracious Hakimi took to Instagram to wish the South African team well in the rest of the tournament. His well wishes were well received by both the South African public and the national team who went on to win Bronze at the tournament.

At the tail end of November news broke that former Sundowns and Chiefs attacker Khama Billiat was back in South Africa and would soon be a free agent as his contract with Zimbabwean club Yadah FC was not going to be extended.

Cue much speculation on his future and the hope, that in order to stay fit for his national team's bid to qualify for Afcon 2025, the man nicknamed 'Khamaldinho' would sign for one of the three PSL sides who have expressed interest in his services.

Since then news of the player has gone quiet as the January window for registering players in the PSL nears.

The (at that time) Mamelodi Sundowns coach was always box office with a microphone in front of him and he proved that in March when he declared one of his dreams was to be an assistant coach to Ernst Middendorp.

To put that in context when he said it, Mokwena was on the march to Sundowns PSL title points record while Middendorp was managing the relegation-doomed, bottom-of-the-table Cape Town Spurs.

Despite the disparity in their circumstances, Mokwena insisted that he had much to learn from the then 65-year-old former coach of Kaizer Chiefs, Maritzburg United, Chippa United, Bloemfontein Celtic and Moroka Swallows.

At the time nobody, and we mean nobody, would have predicted that the German would still be in the CT Spurs hotseat today while Mokwena was let go by Sundowns in July. Maybe Rhulani was right about Middendorp after all.

In January, Andile Jali had been one of many casualties as Moroka Swallows went into financial meltdown and jettisoned players for 'breaches of contract'. By July he had been without a club for six months and many thought that was the end of the 34-year-old's career.

But you can't keep a good bad boy down and he announced he had signed for a PSL team while refusing to name them.

A short while later it was revealed that he had signed for Chippa United where he has had a pretty decent season so far, even chipping in with a couple of goals from his deep-lying midfield position.

Rumours that Keagan Dolly was earning a R1 million per month salary at Kaizer Chiefs had caused quite a stir on social media, especially during the injury-ravaged final few months he spent at Naturena.

His struggles with injury and form saw Chiefs decline to renew his contract and he was let go at the end of the season.

Then in August, as news of a failed deal at SuperSport emerged, Dolly decided to have his say on leaving Chiefs and the salary he earned there.

In April the then deputy president of the Economic Freedom Fighters, Floyd Shivambu decided to climb on the bandwagon and have a dig at the increasingly hapless Kaizer Chiefs on social media.

The post went viral and GOAL readers lapped up this unusual intersection of politics and sport.

'When news broke that Orlando Pirate's young star Mofokeng was on the radar of Spanish giants Barcelona, Mzansi rejoiced until we realised it was Barcelona B that were interested, not the first team.

That set off a massive debate on GOAL social media whether this was good, bad, or just plain insulting news.

One of our Facebook users was having none of it: "Barcelona B team must go to hell!"

In our third best-performing article of the year, we collated local fans' reactions to the news.

When GOAL learned that Pitso Mosimane favourite Sammy Seabi was leaving the Brazilians in late September, readers flocked to the exclusive story.

It emerged that after the departure of Mosimane, the midfielder was successfully loaned out three times to Moroka Swallows, Chippa United and Sekhukhune United but Masandawana didn't see a future at the club and terminated his contract with one year remaining by 'mutual consent'.

Happily for Seabi, he was quickly snapped up by this season's surprise package Polokwane City where he has helped them to currently sit third in the league table.

When Hugo Broos' men confirmed their qualification for Afcon 2025 in Morocco there was general jubilation across the country. However, there was at least one man who wasn't getting too carried away: Minister of Sport Gayton McKenzie who made it clear on his social media that the national team was only 50% of the way to the goals and expectations he had set.

"One more to go" he posted to his X social media account, referring to his "demand" that the national team qualify for the World Cup too.

Judging from our audience's response to this item, there are millions of South Africans who agree with the minister.