{"id":824600,"date":"2026-07-26T08:55:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T08:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/824600\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T08:55:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T08:55:11","slug":"how-the-death-of-jayden-adams-shook-a-community-being-on-the-pitch-was-his-happy-place-soccer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/824600\/","title":{"rendered":"How the death of Jayden Adams shook a community: \u2018Being on the pitch was his happy place\u2019 | Soccer"},"content":{"rendered":"

For Jayden Adams, the South Africa midfielder who died this month at the age of 25<\/a>, football was a \u201csafe space\u201d. Those words, used by Adams\u2019s junior coach Steve Barker at his memorial service last Thursday, tell you everything you need to know about his life beyond the pitch.<\/p>\n

Adams\u2019s battles were bestowed on him almost from birth. Though he was born into newly democratic South Africa, by the early 2000s the revolution was well on its way to being betrayed. The vote was extended to all, but few could make full use of the freedoms available to them because socioeconomic circumstances in the country had barely changed. Stellenbosch, where the Adams family were based, is a perfect example.<\/p>\n

Its facade is a tourist dream: a university town nestled among vineyards, Cape Dutch architecture and indie boutiques. Most visitors never venture beyond the town centre or into its suburbs, which are home to the far less privileged and are havens of neglect. Those areas are classic Apartheid hangovers, where the wealth has been preserved for a historically advantaged elite and those on the margins, working-class communities of people of colour, are all but invisible.<\/p>\n

Ironically, that is how Adams is most often described. He moved in the shadows, both of society and the sport in which he excelled. \u201cJayden was a guy of very few words. He was quiet, very shy and the smallest among his teammates,\u201d Brendine Johnson, an Adams family spokesperson, says. \u201cInitially, a lot of people missed his football qualities because of his size, but he had a very good fighting spirit. It just wasn\u2019t always on display.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adams, whose funeral took place on Saturday in Cape Town, loved the game dearly and his aunt Monica Thaoge recalled how, as a child, he would kick anything round \u2013 \u201ceven onions\u201d she said at his memorial. His parents, Juanito and Candice, previously mentioned potatoes as their son\u2019s football of choice. Nobody in the family talks about lacking in financial means because theirs was a community striving to make life better. But there were absences, especially early on.<\/p>\n

Members of the Mamelodi Sundowns football club carry Jayden Adams\u2019 coffin at the funeral service for the player on Saturday. Photograph: Esa Alexander\/Reuters<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody in areas like that is just trying to make ends meet,\u201d says Roger Telemachus, the former South Africa cricketer who grew up on the same street as Adams\u2019s father in Cloetesville. \u201cFor the kids, they may not have noticed so much because they were occupied, mostly with playing sport. Some fathers, like Juanito, really encouraged their kids and everyone used to play everything on the street: tennis, football, rugby, cricket. It was also the best way of staying out of trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n

Problems were there for everyone to see and, according to Telemachus, have got worse \u201cin the last 20 years\u201d. They include gangsterism, substance abuse and crimes that range from petty to serious. Adams was able to escape from that life when he moved to the slightly more affluent area of Ida\u2019s Valley, but still he did not have a life of luxury. For a period, the family of six, which included four children, lived in a two-bedroom place. At other times, they were with his maternal grandmother, Marianna. \u201cHe basically grew up in her yard,\u201d says Johnson.<\/p>\n

Things started to change for Adams when he was picked for the Stellenbosch Academy Under-18 side at the age of 15. \u201cThe environment was tough, especially if you are not big or tall enough, but when physicality was no longer the most important thing, people saw that Jayden was technically very good,\u201d says Johnson.<\/p>\n

His coaches agree. Barker, the nephew of South Africa\u2019s Afcon winning coach, Clive, and the current coach of Simba in Tanzania, gave an emotional assessment of Adams\u2019s skills shortly after his death. \u201cYou get many good footballers but you get few great footballers. Jayden was great,\u201d he told Newzroom Afrika.<\/p>\n

\u201cJayden had three attributes that set him apart: an incredible first touch, his weight of pass \u2013 I\u2019ve never seen anything like it \u2013 and he loved the game so much. Being on the pitch was his happy place. He didn\u2019t pass the ball, he used to caress the ball. He was special and his football intelligence was just outstanding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jayden Adams played in South Africa\u2019s World Cup group game against Czechia despite the death of his grandmother the day before. Photograph: Rich von Biberstein\/Icon Sportswire\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

It was under Barker that Adams blossomed. He became the first player from the Stellenbosch Academy to play in South Africa\u2019s top flight, the Premier Soccer League. Five years and an international call up later, the country\u2019s richest club, Mamelodi Sundowns, came calling. This year, at the start of his second season with them, Adams shaved his head, in what he joked was a sign of maturity and called himself a \u201cgrootman\u201d (big man). The nickname stuck.<\/p>\n

Adams never said it, but he may also have realised how much he had grown up. By then, he had been picked, played for and dropped from the national side after arriving late at a training camp and irking the head coach, Hugo Broos. He had also lost two of his academy teammates, including a close friend.<\/p>\n

In February 2023, Oshwin Andries, who was 19, died from stabbing injuries he sustained in Paarl, which is 16km north of Stellenbosch. Three years later, Jeandre Gaffoor, 20, drowned in the Krom River.<\/p>\n

When Sundowns won the CAF Champions League in May, Adams dedicated his medal to Andries. To lose so much has weighed on the town, but through Adams they have had reason to celebrate.<\/p>\n

skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter | Fortnightly<\/p>\n

Sign up to The Hotspot<\/p>\n

A new fortnightly newsletter covering the intersection of sport and the climate crisis<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Members of Adams\u2019s family, including his father, Juanito (centre left), and mother, Candice (centre right), at his memorial service last week. Photograph: Rodger Bosch\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

His role in Sundowns\u2019 continental victory and a call-up to the World Cup squad suggested Adams\u2019s career trajectory was rising. After a first season at Sundowns where he was often playing off the bench and his place in the side was questioned, he had become integral to the team. At Adams\u2019s memorial, the Sundowns senior coach, Steve Komphela, called him \u201cthe heart of our team and the heartbeat of our playing style\u201d who \u201cunderstood the game like a coach and played it as a player\u201d.<\/p>\n

In the past year, Adams was playing to the potential people who knew him well had seen years ago and surprising others with his courage and drive to succeed. South Africa\u2019s captain, Ronwen Williams, recalled an incident at this year\u2019s Africa Cup of Nations when the tiny Adams took on a tall Mali opponent with some choice local words. Williams asked Adams if he knew the size of the player he was sledging, but Adams shrugged it off and replied that the Malian wouldn\u2019t understand anyway.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the character he had,\u201d Williams said at the memorial, smiling through his tears as he bade farewell to the teammate he called \u201cmy ma se kind\u201d (my mother\u2019s child, a term of endearment used in South Africa).<\/p>\n

As his star rose, Adams was careful not to advertise his achievements. \u201cJayden knew what he had, but he never wanted to voice it. He was very competitive, but he would never brag,\u201d says Johnson. \u201cYou get people who are very good verbally on social media. Jayden was not like that. And he wanted to give back. After every game, he would be giving away shirts and boots to kids who asked.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also concentrated on providing for his family because he \u201calways promised them he would change their financial situation\u201d.<\/p>\n

Jayden Adams signs a South Africa shirt for a young Mexican fan who arrived at the team\u2019s World Cup hotel. \u2018He wanted to give back.\u2019 Photograph: SAFA<\/p>\n

At the World Cup, Adams played for them, even through immense pain. His grandmother Marianna died the day before South Africa\u2019s match against Czechia<\/a> and Adams opted to remain with the squad. He played that match and appeared in good spirits afterwards and called the 1-1 draw positive, even if he was feeling the opposite way.<\/p>\n

He also played the next game against South Korea<\/a>, which South Africa won to reach the knockouts for the first time. Post-game footage showed him sitting on his own while the rest of the squad celebrated with a signature song and dance.<\/p>\n

At the memorial, Komphela offered the Adams family a Bible verse as a comfort, but it may as well be a summary. Psalm 23:4: \u201cThough I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

They will know Adams took that walk many times over his short life and he did not fear. He leaves behind his parents, three siblings, a partner, two children and a community who have gone through what no neighbourhood should. In all that, he has gone from not wanting to be known to spending a week in the footballing world\u2019s spotlight. A minute\u2019s silence was observed at several World Cup games in Adams\u2019s memory. That is not the way his family would have pictured him coming to global attention, but it has shown them that, in football, he was always far more valued than anyone thought.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think the community knew how big he was and how people enjoyed his football,\u201d says Johnson. \u201cIt\u2019s a huge shock.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For Jayden Adams, the South Africa midfielder who died this month at the age of 25, football was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":824601,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-824600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=824600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/824601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=824600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=824600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=824600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}