I am so much more

Former Banyana Banyana star Shirlene Booysen is stepping out of the shadows and claiming her place in the sun. After a successful two years as head coach of South Sudan, she has retraced the steps taken by fellow countryman Pitso Mosimane and ventured into the melting pot of continental football that is Egypt where she has taken the reigns as head coach of Wadi Degla Female, one of the top clubs in the North African country. Soccer Laduma’s Thomas Kwenaite caught up with her as she opens up on her time in South Sudan and how she overcame the cultural differences. Booysens also talks about Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies’ CAF Women’s Champions League triumph and the pressure imposed on professional sportsmen and women who are coming out openly to accept that they are suffering from mental health challenges.

Thomas Kwenaite: Congratulations on joining Wadi Degla as head coach. Why them?

Shirlene Booysen: This club has a rich history, but in all honesty, it was them that chose me. Yes, I had several options, but in the end, it was always going to be Wadi Degla. We have the same ideas about where we want to take the women’s game and the club has high standards, but also a great culture, and I simply wanted to be a part of that.

TK: How did you feel when Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies won the CAF Women’s Champions League?

SB: Of course, this means a lot to South African football, but what we should realise is that investment does eventually pay off. This is clear in how this club has been run – totally professional – and that brought with it huge rewards, not just financially mind you, but also they have earned the respect from the rest of the world. I know that others can also learn from this. The fact that it is not just the women’s side but the men have also just won the African Football League is critically important. I am so happy for this club and especially for the women’s team as we always have to prove our value two-fold – i.e. in the women’s game – for us to be recognised.

TK: Robyn Moodaly of Banyana Banyana and Lyle Foster recently highlighted the mental challenges suffered by professional players at the highest level. It must be of great concern…

SB: This is something that is really disconcerting and has been highlighted in the last few years. It is a huge challenge with not just players but coaches as well. I think FIFPRO did a study and it showed that 38% of players struggled with mental health symptoms in their playing careers. It is a huge number of players even on a global scale and it is critical that as coaches we increase our efforts to support these players. It is equally important that the players themselves take whatever steps necessary to regain their mental health stability.

TK: What kind of assistance can be given to the players and how do you know, for example, that this player needs mental health assistance?

SB: It is vitally important to have sports psychologists in the team or counsellors that are on call at any given moment. I think there is so much pressure on the current crop of players to excel and succeed and so much is being asked of them, either from their individual clubs or from their own country, travelling through different time zones maybe on national duty, injury management, while all the while trying to manage their personal lives and relationships, etc. We have to make sure that we help these players to strike a balance and cope with all these demands. Also, cyber bullying is real and plays a huge role in the mental health of players and we saw that at the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. I fully support a player who recognises that they need to take time out to regain their mental health, because it’s really hard. Life is hard!

TK: How did you leave the South Sudan national team job?

SB: I think when I initially went to South Sudan, they had no real foundation as they have played in all the time of their existence just three matches in the CECAFA tournament. We built a culture with the players where they could dream of playing professional football, where players could ask questions and plan their own pathway. I was so happy to be able to give them a voice, to lead them into a new era for women’s football in the country. Together we were resilient in our pursuit of excellence and after my two-year contract was completed, I felt that I had done whatever I could and needed to move on. However, this team was able to get a FIFA ranking, two players earned professional contracts in Europe and so much more was achieved in the two years that I was there.

Those are things money cannot buy.

TK: How did you find the experience?

SB: It was second to none. Working with players who are humble and do not have the entitlement syndrome was priceless. They loved working with me and I had some of the best local coaches working with me too. I could empower them and give them the experience and ability to express themselves while they learnt. I was also able to support the coach education department and set up a curriculum for their coaching courses while I was there, so in all, I think it was a good experience. I needed a change and South Sudan was the perfect opportunity for me to establish myself as a coach and as an educator.

TK: How did you adapt to the cultural differences?

SB: I am one of those people that bring home wherever I go. I was able to do that with bringing some of my favourite foods to South Sudan, and myself and the girls many nights had game nights where we would watch movies or games and just enjoy ourselves with food that we had cooked. Almost 95% of them spoke fluent English, so there were no language problems there. I sampled some of their traditional food and prepared them some of my favourite South African dishes. Other than that, I think the people were amazingly kind and accepted me with their open arms. That is why they were so sad to see me go and I was also sad to leave.

TK: How did the experience of working in South Sudan empower you?

SB: I know everywhere I have worked, with every coach I have worked with, I was able to grow. I had the very best of both worlds. South Sudan gave me an opportunity to step out on my own and become my own person in the coaching world. Before that, I think everyone just saw me as an analyst, but I am so much more. I am a head coach with expertise in several other areas, including analysis (data and video) and also goalkeeping and periodization. I bring all of that to the game now and with the coaching education that I got involved with in South Sudan, I think I am now a more complete coach. Of course, as human beings we keep learning and empowering ourselves, but the experiences that you have gained while in different countries working with different athletes, that you cannot buy also.

TK: What was it like working with Desiree Ellis and Simphiwe Dludlu at the global showpiece Down Under?

SB: I think coach Des is one of my best friends and when she called and asked if I could come and support her at the World Cup, there was no doubt in my mind that it was something I would gladly accept to do. I put all my plans to join another team at that time on hold as there were countless offers on the table and went to work with her and her technical team. I know how coach Des works and I also know the players, so it was not anything new to me. The role was, of course, different to what I was used to. I was now acting as a Technical Advisor, so I needed to see where we could improve on certain aspects of our game while trying with the technical team to find solutions and implement it. It was a really good experience.

TK: How far, in your view, has Banyana progressed in comparison to the rest of the world?

SB: When you look at how we played and how well we have done on this big stage, I have to believe that we have made huge strides. The commitment from SAFA and the SASOL sponsorship has been crucial, but we need to understand that football, and especially women’s football, is growing and evolving at a rapid rate. We need to continue with investment in the game and make sure that the players, coaches and administrators as well as referees get the continued development to make the league stronger and more competitive. We are right there with the rest of the world; the question is will we stay there?

TK: Is women’s football getting appropriate backing from the continent’s federations?

SB: Many of the federations are now investing fully in the women’s game more than ever. You see more leagues, professional and amateur, running the different federations and that is good. But we need more support for the younger or smaller federations. CAF and FIFA have done so much already and we need to take advantage of what they are offering to grow our game on the continent. We saw now the four federations that went to the Women’s World Cup, they did so well with three of them advancing to the knockout stages. Getting in the right coaches and support staff, making sure the leagues are competitive and providing pathways for our players and everyone involved in the women’s game has to be priority. We can always do more.

TK: What is the kind of scenario you’d like to see happen in women’s football in order for the game to progress?

SB: Junior football needs to be prioritised. How we play our qualifiers or just being active with our youth teams needs to become a priority. If you see across the rest of the world, there are constantly youth teams playing international friendlies or tournaments and we need that as well if we want our players to have the experience when going to tournaments like the World Cup. We cannot only play a home-and-away qualifier and when we lose, we don’t see that player or the team ever again for two years until the next qualifiers. I think senior football has made huge strides with the increment of the Wafcon tournament to 12 participants. The next step would be to make it 16. The CAF Women’s Champions League club competition has been a huge incentive for clubs to invest in their teams. I could not have been happier to see that happen. We need to improve our media exposure for the women’s game. We need to make sure the women’s game is marketable, package a better product out there for sponsors to want to invest more.

TK: Banyana will come up against Burkina Faso in two-legged Wafcon qualifiers in early December.

SB: The Burkinabe team went to the last Wafcon and was really competitive. They narrowly lost to Morocco as well as to Senegal. They have assembled a really good team, but we are talking about South Africa now. They are African champions, but I think they will do well to be cautiously optimistic in the first leg and go for broke in the second leg at home.

TK: Thank you very much, Shirlene. Best of luck!

SB: It was indeed my pleasure, and thank you for allowing me to share some of my insights with your readers.