By Mark Gleeson BBC Sport, Cape Town

Mabizela is South Africa's youngest ever captain

Tottenham Hotspur's prospective signing Mbulelo Oldjohn Mabizela owes his rapid rise to the top to Real Madrid's new manager Carlos Queiroz.

It was the Portuguese coach who plucked the young defender from obscurity and gave him his first international cap for South Africa in December 2001.

Despite the fact that he had played just nine league matches for Orlando Pirates, Mabizela repaid his coach's faith and subsequently made the Bafana Bafana squad for the 2002 African Nations Cup finals in Mali.

He featured in all of South Africa's four matches in the tournament but looked overawed at right-back.

Not surprisingly, he was one of the victims - along with Queiroz - of a purge after Bafana Bafana were knocked out at the quarter-final stage.

It meant that Mabizela missed out on the World Cup finals last year but he bounced back to reclaim his place in the national side with high-quality performances over the last season.

He has also become the youngest man to captain Bafana Bafana, taking over from Leeds United's Lucas Radebe as the new skipper of the side.

To be the youngest captain in the history of my club and then take them to the championship made me feel on top of the world Mbulelo Mabizela

Mabizela, who has now won 20 caps, is tipped by many as the new Radebe and led South Africa to victory in their last two key qualifying matches against the Ivory Coast and Burundi this summer to book a place at the 2004 African Nations Cup finals in Tunisia.

He also captained Orlando Pirates to the South African Premier League title last season and won the footballer of the year award.

"To be the youngest captain in the history of my club and then take them to the championship made me feel on top of the world," said the quietly-spoken player in a recent interview.

"I'm honoured by the respect they showed me."

Mabizela now stands on the verge of a dream move to the English Premiership after marking Helder Postiga out of the match when Pirates beat Tottenham in a pre-season friendly in Durban recently.

Mabizela's father and grandfather were both footballers - his father Dumisani Mabizela playing at AmaZulu, a Premier League cub based in Durban.

But Mabizela says his biggest influence is his mother Mamazane, a nurse.

When he started out as footballer, Mabizela used his mother's surname, Oldjohn but later told journalists he preferred to be known as Mabizela.

His mother says of her son: "Mbulelo is a very quiet boy. He seldom starts a conversation, but he loves education, he is a very strong character."