Despite Bafana Bafana’s exit from the World Cup, they excelled in handling the scorching temperatures, ranking second in sweat production among teams reaching the Round of 32, with Aubrey Modiba as the least sweaty player. Picture: Backpagepix
Image: Backpagepix
The week may have begun with the deflating news for South African fans that Bafana Bafana had crashed out of the Fifa World Cup, but there is at least some good news.
Bafana lost 1-0 to co-hosts Canada in stoppage time in Los Angeles on Sunday, but coming from sub-Saharan Africa apparently had its advantages.
Temperatures have been scorching for much of the tournament, and being able to cope with the sweltering conditions appears to have given certain teams an edge.
That may have been one factor behind South Africa’s historic run to the Round of 32, as new data has emerged showing how much every team that reached the knockout stage was estimated to have sweated.
According to GIGAcalculator, which carried out the study using the height, weight and age data of all 731 players who reached the Round of 32, co-hosts Mexico were the team that sweated the least.
Right behind them, though, were South Africa. According to the study, Bafana averaged just 23,880 mL of sweat per match.
Incredibly, the study found the Bafana players lost so little fluid that the average South African fan was likely to drink more liquid over the course of an entire day.
And who was the least sweaty player at the entire tournament? Aubrey Modiba, who was estimated to lose just 1,812 mL of sweat per match.
Unsurprisingly, at the other end of the scale, the European nations sweated the most during the World Cup. Norway topped the rankings as the sweatiest team, followed by Belgium, while Switzerland completed the unwanted podium.