Real Madrid visited in the 1960s and Barcelona have been twice in more recent times, and their national team won their only World Cup at Soccer City in Johannesburg in 2010, but for the rest footballing ties between South African and Spain have been limited at best.
But, for the first time, this season sees two Spanish coaches working at DStv Premiership clubs in what could be a change in focus from local club owners, and a turn torwards the Iberian peninsula.
Fulsome coverage of LaLiga on SuperSport ensures an enhanced interest in the Spanish game ... and, consequently, their coaches too.
It used to be that foreign coaches hired by South African clubs were almost exclusively British, with a handful of South Americans, but after the end of apartheid, many barriers were broken and there was an influx from African states north of the border, plus Eastern Europeans.
Often the success of one coach of a particular nationality, open the doors for others of a similar background.
Over the last four decades of professional football in South Africa, top flight clubs have employed coaches of 39 different nationalities – but before Jose Riveiro was hired by Orlando Pirates at the start of last season and Pablo Franco by AmaZulu this term, there had only been a single Spaniard who had worked as the coach of a local club.
That was Antonio Lopez, who was coach of Mamelodi Sundowns in 2010-11 and then worked at Bidvest Wits two seasons later. He had an unhappy time at Sundowns and when he quit after nine months, accused the fans of intimidation and making threats.
He returned to the country in 2012 but stayed only six months at Wits, going onto work in the Indian Super League, where he is now thew technical director at Mohun Bagas of Kolkata.
Lopez had arrived in South Africa originally because of the links between Patrice Motsepe and the late Dutch legend Johan Cruyff, who had recommended ex-Barcelona greats Hritso Stoichkov and Johan Neeskens to take charge of the Brazilians. Lopez was Stoichkov’s assistant and then took over from him.
The 45-year-old Riveiro, who cut his teeth as a youth coach with Celta Vigo, arrived at Pirates from working in Finland. His only previous head coaching job was at Inter Turku, who he led to second position in the league in 2020 and third the next season. He also took the club to European competition after a six year absence. He was in charge of a total of 104 matches at the Turkish outfit.
Franco, 43, arrived in Durban from a spell in Tanzania at Simba SC but unlike Riveiro does have LaLiga experience. In 2015, he stepped in as interim coach at Getafe when Quique Flores (later to work at Watford in England) resigned. Franco had 14 games in charge, including losing 6-0 to Barcelona and 7-2 to Real Madrid, but kept the club from being relegated He moved to Georgia after that but returned to Spain as an assistant at Real Madrid to Julen Lopetegui, who has just left his job at Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Franco then worked for a single game in Kuwait before quitting Qadsia, continuing his travels in Tanzania.
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