The senior women’s national football team, Banyana Banyana’s good African Women’s Cup of Nations (AWCON) campaign has inspired me to think critically about why the team is as successful and I’ve come to a rather simple conclusion – good leadership.
This is as the team has again advanced to the final of the continent’s premier international football competition for women, where it will have the arduous task of toppling the hosts Morocco if it is to win a maiden title.
I interviewed the team’s former coach Joseph ‘Skheshe’ Mkhonza in Kwa-Thema where he told me the story of his journey with the team in the early 2010s.
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I found it compelling that he mentioned that he also had on his side a few of the players who are in the current Banyana team, as well as current national U17 girls’ team coach Simphiwe Dludlu, who was the team captain at some point during Mkhonza’s tenure.
That gave me the impression that there has been a good deal of continuity in the system, where players are blooded into the national set-up at an early age and developed by being exposed to international football before being placed in leadership positions when their playing days are over.
Those whose playing days haven’t yet ended form the current leadership group in the Banyana team, the likes of Thembi Kgatlana, Refiloe Jane, Jermaine Seoposenwe, et al.
I thought about how good it must be for a team when it is made up of a good number of players who are seasoned internationals, players who have duly graduated to the senior team after proving their worth in the youth national team(s).
I also concluded that that degree of consistency – because they were given a chance, to begin with – is what has helped some of them secure moves to big overseas clubs.
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Jane, the team’s vice-captain, plies her trade at Italian giants AC Milan, Kgatlana is at American club Racing Louisville after leaving Spanish giants Atletico Madrid, while Linda Motlhalo is at Swedish side Djurgardens.
Playing for clubs of that calibre and in the leagues in which they play inevitably helps players improve.
It is no wonder Banyana seems like one of the better teams in terms of its players’ technical ability at this year’s AWCON. Competing at the highest level invariably forces players to improve even in the smallest details of their game.
There’s also no question that Banyana’s opportunity to work with a local coach, who’s also a former team captain in Desiree Ellis, has had a positive impact.
In showing just how capable a coach and a leader she is, Ellis has not only given a chance to several talented youngsters that have hardly disappointed but she’s also now taken the team to two back-to-back AWCON finals.
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