Football runs in the Xabanisa family
ALEXANDRA – Many more Xabanisas could be on their way to join the only women’s football club in Alex, says Khumalo.
A talented 14-year-old ladies footballer, Zimkhitha Xabanisa from the U17 side of Bluebirds Ladies, was named Player of the Tournament of the Free Palestine Solidarity Cup.
In a true reflection of how football runs in this Xabanisa family in Alexandra, her sister, Vuyo Xabanisa, was part of two other talented players that picked up from a horde of players in the 2017 Future Players Gauteng Talent Search competition.
She undertook a training camp trip destined for the football mecca of Madrid and Valencia in Spain in the same year. On her return, she graduated to the senior team from the U17s and joined her elder sister, Zimi Xabanisa, who has since left the club. Now there is a new Xabanisa, who will soon join her sister, Vuyo, in the senior team as well.
The KwaBhekilanga High School girl, who started playing soccer at age seven, said she will always put her best foot forward for the game in the hope of excelling to ultimately play for Banyana Banyana, and even clubs abroad. “Watch this space,” she told Alex News.
“Football seems to run in the veins of this family. Now there is a third Xabanisa in the team and who knows, maybe many more are on their way,” joked Malvin Khumalo, the secretary-general of the Alexandra Northrand Local Football Association and founder of the Bluebird Football Academy that owns the club.
