Neil Robert Tovey OIS (born 2 July 1962) is a South African soccer coach and former player and also brother of former footballer Mark Tovey. He was born in Pretoria. He holds the record for most appearances in the National Soccer League.^[2]

Tovey was born in Pretoria but grew up in Durban. He had been playing soccer since 1969.^[3] He aspired to be a doctor before opting to play professional football. His brother Mark who was also a footballer used to give him football lessons.^[4] He was also coached at junior level at Juventus Durban by Clive Barker.^[3]

Tovey played for South Africa national football team and won 52 caps without scoring.^[9] He captained the team 29 times.^[5]

Tovey coached Banyana Banyana to a COSAFA Cup win in 2002.^[3] Tovey saved Hellenic from relegation in the 2003–04 season.^[10] He got his UEFA A licence with a 90% pass in Hennef, Germany, which were the best marks since 1998.^[3] On 27 June 2015 Tovey became technical director of South Africa national football team.^[11]

Tovey lives in Johannesburg with his wife Nadine Tovey and has three children, Bianca (b. 1991), Jessica (b. 1993) and Sheldon (b. 1997).^[10] His second daughter Jessica was a Miss Teen SA finalist in 2011 where Tyra Banks shared a picture of her on Instagram. Sheldon wears a hearing aid and has impaired speech because oxygen was cut off from his brain after being burnt by scalding water in 1998.^[12] On 23 February 2015, Tovey was admitted to ICU after suffering from three heart attacks during a game of squash.^[13] Tovey suffered a further heart attack in October 2016, and was admitted to hospital.^[14]