Steve Komphela

Steve Komphela (born 1 July 1967) is a South African football coach and a former player who is the manager of South African Premier Soccer League club Mamelodi Sundowns F.C.

Early life Steve was born in Golden Valley farm, 20 km outside Kroonstad to Jack Koyi Koyo and Nomalanga Komphela as the youngest of 11 children. Komphela became a teacher by profession after he got his teacher's diploma at Tshiya College in Free State.

Club career Komphela started out at NSL Second Division side Klerksdorp City and later Qwa Qwa Stars where he earned promotion to the National Soccer League. He made his NSL debut on 9 February 1986 in a 4–1 win over Witbank Aces. He retired in 1997.

Outside football Komphela is married to Mamoepi Komphela, and together they have three kids: Nombuyiselo, Nomalanga, and Noxolo. He taught at the Johannesburg Secondary School but apart from being a life orientation teacher and a professional footballer, Komphela was also a TV presenter. He hosted his own talk show on Çanakkale Dardanelspor's television channel. Komphela was approached by SABC to be the host of a football talk show but rejected this opportunity. Steve also tutors the Mamelodi Sundowns youth team. He said the youth need brains to play football because "without brains a footballer is just a headless chicken chasing a ball". He also takes part in many youth uplifting programs. Having played almost half of the team's internationals up to December 1995. He was not selected for the 1996 African Cup of Nations for obvious reasons. He resigned as head coach of the club with immediate effect following a 2-0 Nedbank Cup semi-final loss to Free State Stars in April 2018.

In July 2018, he joined Bloemfontein Celtic which was undergoing financial struggles at the time.

Shortly after he started his new career with Bloemfontein Celtic, he started the 2018-19 Premier Soccer League league with a huge surprise. He won the first six consecutive league games and got a 2–2 draw against Kaizer Chiefs, after which his team was down to 2–0 at one point later in the second-half. He also beat Orlando Pirates in that first leg of the season. He managed Golden Arrows but resigned a day before he was announced as the new Mamelodi Sundowns coach. He was announced to coach Mamelodi Sundowns on the club's Twitter on Monday 12 October 2020.