Export of women footballers on the rise
The senior ladies national team players continue to join the ever- growing list of players plying their trade outside the country. Recently, Sedilame Boseja joined Sundowns in South Africa while Sindy Tsumake, Warona Molete and Thanda Mokgabo joined the Zambian Women’s League under the books of Lusaka Dynamos.
However, none of these moves came as a surprise. Speaking in an interview this week he senior national women’s team coach, Gaolethoo Nkutusang had this to say:
“I am very proud of them, they need to work very hard. That’s their ticket to Europe, it’s a platform that can take them to Europe, therefore they should work hard and open doors for players who are coming up.”
Further, she said this will bring about growth to local women football and boost the national team and make it competitive across the continent. “This will bring growth to women’s football and the national team, having many players playing at different competitive leagues.” Nkutusang added that their exceptional performance in the COSAFA Tournament and Olympic Qualifiers has helped them a lot as scouts started zooming on local players and identifying their talents. “I want to advise all these players to work hard and showcase their quality, prove to them that there are many better players in Botswana so that they come back for more players,” she said. For his part, local pundit, City Keagakwa said it is positive to see local players stepping further in their football careers. “African women football is growing, there’s champions’ League, there’s AWCON and for these players to be in teams that are in serious contention for honours can only improve them for the better. They all got the quality to perform at that level and even further.” He added that the SA sasol women league is competitive and that is why the likes of Refilwe Jane, Thembi Kgatlana and a lot of other South African women are plying their trade in Europe, China and the United States of America.
“Thuto Ramafifi is in America and the more we have players competing at a higher level the more our national teams stand a chance to seriously challenge other top countries in the continent.”