It has been only 15 years since South Africa returned from almost three decades of apartheid-enforced isolation on the football scene.

During that brief period, the country's national side, Bafana Bafana (The Boys'), have qualified for two FIFA World Cup ™ finals and also won the CAF Africa Cup of Nations.

But what should be something of a fairy tale is also tinged with a high turnover of coaches and players.

Carlos Alberto Parreira, a former FIFA World Cup winner with his native Brazil, is the 14th coach to take charge of South Africa's side in as many years. He started his job in January 2007 and has a contract until July 2010.

His predecessors include a Frenchman, Portuguese and English coach, all of whom left their job before fulfilling a successful mandate.

Parreira has a challenge of his own as the attempts to make South Africa a competitive force when they host the 2010 FIFA World Cup finals.

South African officials are well aware that the success of the 2010 FIFA World Cup finals is largely dependent on the national side performing with aplomb at the tournament and there are high hopes South Africa could match, or even break, the African record of a quarter-final finish at the FIFA World Cup.

It has been almost a decade since South Africa enjoyed its best period of success, lifting the Cup of Nations trophy on home soil in February 1996.

The side coached by Clive Barker and captained by Neil Tovey is still regarded as the best in the country's history. The winning line-up included the likes of Lucas Radebe, who later captained Leeds United, John Moshoeu, who was a trophy winner with Turkish giants Fenerbahce, and the popular Mark Fish, who played in Serie A with Lazio and then in the English Premiership.

South Africa beat Tunisia 2-0 in the final at Soccer City in Johannesburg and although they were finalists in 1998, they have not been able to match that achievement since.

In 2000, Bafana Bafana finished third at the Cup of Nations finals and two years later they were quarter-finalists. In 2004 in Tunisia, the country did not qualify past the first round and in 2006 in Egypt they once again failed to get past the opening group stage, failing to record a single goal or point in their three matches.

Prior to South Africa's suspension from FIFA, they had played just 22 full international matches, winning 16, drawing one and losing five. The vast majority of these games were against fellow dominion Australia.

Since returning to the ranks of world football in 192, Bafana Bafana have played some 200 games and have a winning record of around 40 per cent.

The vast majority of its footballers now play in the top leagues of the world, including countries like Belgium, England, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Russia and Switzerland.

Previously South African internationals have also previously played for clubs in the top flight of French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish football.

The country's most capped international is Shaun Bartlett, who was also a member of the 1996 Cup of Nations winning side and later played in the MLS in the USA, for FC Zurich and then Charlton Athletic.

However, now that his international career is over, he is likely to have his record of 74 surpassed by the likes of Siyabonga Nomvete and the current captain Aaron Mokoena, who plays for Blackburn Rovers.

McCarthy, who plays alongside Mokoena at Ewood Park, finished the 2006/7 season with 23 goals to his name. The striker has withdrawn from the international scene temporarily in order in a move which he feels will help younger South African strikers.

"It's giving younger players a little bit more experience, so I hope it's benefiting everyone," he told FIFA.com. "In the future, if they still think I'm the best striker, then I'd be honoured to go back. It would also be great to play in the World Cup in my country."