Desiree lands Banyana job
Ayear and a couple of months after the departure of Vera Pauw, the South African Football Association yesterday finally announced Desiree Ellis as the permanent head coach of Banyana Banyana.
The news of Ellis’ full-time appointment – she has served as a caretaker coach ever since Pauw departed after the 2016 Rio Olympics – came following a long and protracted search, with Safa revealing they had received numerous CVs from coaches around the world in the last few months.
Safa president Danny Jordaan broke the news at Safa house in Nasrec, Johannesburg, yesterday and said they were content with their decision.
“We have taken a decision to announce Desiree as the head coach of Banyana Banyana,” said Jordaan. “We are very happy with her appointment, if you look at our national teams there are women involved. All of them were players and have now graduated as coaches.”
Maud Khumalo is the coach of the South African Under-20 women’s team while Simphiwe Dludlu has just guided the Under-17s to the World Cup in Uruguay later this year.
Jordaan added that there was a strict list of requirements before Ellis was given the Banyana post.
“First, we must qualify for the (2019) Afcon in Ghana, qualify for the (2019) World Cup and then we will start preparing for the Olympics (to be held in Tokyo in 2020),” he said. “More importantly, we want
Banyana to be one of the top two countries on the continent because in 2020, Fifa will be launching a global Women’s World League where there will be 16 top teams.”
In Ellis’ tenure as caretaker coach, Banyana had already won the Cosafa Women’s Cup and were voted the 2017 Caf African Women’s Team-of-the-Year.
A former Banyana player, Ellis says it all started as a dream to play for the national team and once she was done playing, she dreamed of coaching Banyana one day.
Ellis will begin her journey as the head coach with the Cyprus Women’s Cup. The squad departs for Cyprus today and will play their first match on February 28 against Slovakia.