For their accolades while playing in South Africa, the trio of Roger Feutmba, Ernest Mtawali, and Manuel 'Tico-Tico' Bucuane remain arguably the best-ever foreign players to grace the PSL.
How so?
Some many ask.
Roger 'The General' Feutmba
Six years was enough for The General to leave a lasting impression on domestic football.
He wasn't a youngster when he came arrived on these shores from Belgian club KV Kortrijk.
There was no need for him to have been a youngster like what happens with most foreign players arriving here because what he could do with the ball at his feet didn't need him to justify his case by producing a birth certificate.
The man had magic in the size 12 Adidas Copa Mundial boots that he wore.
He had already been in Cameroon's squad for the 1990 World Cup in Italy and just didn't need to be fast as he knew how to make the ball work for those that were fast, and Daniel Mudau is always the first to attest to that.
Feutmba's left foot knew how to put the perfectly weighted pass with both the inside and outside of his foot.
For the league titles won in 1997/98, 98/99, and 99/2000 plus the 1998 BOB Save Super Bowl, and 1999 Rothmans Cup – Feutmba was involved.
His passes were crispy, intelligent, and left opponents dizzy especially the out footer that he delivered for Raphael Chukwu one evening at Milpark Stadium against Wits University.
Chances are that there will never be another foreign midfielder as gifted as Feutmba.
Feutmba only ever played for Sundowns in South Africa and retired in 2001 aged 33.
Just to prove that his retirement didn't come from being pushed out he made 35 appearances in his last season (2000/01).
Even the adored Doctor Khumalo always asked about the availability of Feutmba whenever Chiefs had to face Sundowns because he appreciated just how good the Cameroonian was.
He is 55 this year.
Ernest Mtawali
So good a footballer was 'Wire' that Orlando Pirates felt the need to sign him when he was already 32 at the turn of the new millennium after he returned from a spell in Saudi Arabia.
Mtawali's tales – some of which are as compelling as they are controversial – in this game can be turned into a top-selling book.
How he came to be born where he was born, being Mtawali or Chirwali, coming close to playing for Bafana Bafana, how he came to be at Bloemfontein Celtic as a teenager after having been with Welkom Real Hearts, the days of his life at Mamelodi Sundowns, playing in Argentina and France and missing out on a move to Newcastle United.
Then there was the storm around him having six South African IDs, his kids, and personal life, suing the Football Association of Malawi and so much more. 
His life story is loaded especially considering where he is now.
But then this is about Wire the footballer.
The midfield maestro who knew how to move the ball around the park with such fluidity it seemed he was born with a ball at his feet.
For the older Celtic fans, they enjoyed his best years at the club where he could carry the team on his shoulders more often than any other player ever did through the 80s until he left for Sundowns in 1992.
He won the Mainstay Cup in 1985 then won the league at Sundowns and Pirates.
While Feutmba could be the best left-footed import, Mtawali is the best right-footer and the best Malawian ever in South Africa.
If you needed him to play deep in midfield, he could do that to perfection just like he was also able to play further up the field with the same effect.
Wire turns 57 this year.
Manuel 'Tico-Tico' Bucuane
He was the first foreign striker to score 100 goals playing for a South African top-league club.
Plenty of the Mozambican's goals came while he was playing for Jomo Cosmos.
He had class and elegance in abundance and was so slippery he always left defenders shouting at themselves anytime he ran off to the corner of the pitch to celebrate after slicing through the most compact of defences.
For the records, the iconic Mozambican has scored the most goals in South Africa of all foreign-born players to ever play in the PSL.
Tico-Tico joined Jomo Cosmos in the months leading to the start of the PSL after being spotted by legendary Jomo Cosmos owner and coach, Jomo Sono at the 1996 AFCON finals.
The deceptive forward went into double figures for all his first four full seasons that he completed in the PSL, won the 2002 Coca-Cola Cup and SAA Supa8 Cup before leaving for SuperSport United in 2004 where he was again into double figures in his first season (2004-05), scoring 14.
Already 33, he joined Orlando Pirates, then moved to Maritzburg United before returning to Cosmos for his fourth spell in the 2009/10 season.
In the end he was in double figures on the scoring charts in seven of the first eight full seasons that he spent playing PSL football.
He remains a soft-spoken gentleman to this day and will turn 50 this year.
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