Thembi Kgatlana - The Lass’ got talent
Age:20
Club: UWC Ladies
Hometown: Leratong
In a Banyana Banyana team that’s in transition, with a number of new, young faces being brought into the set-up, Thembi Kgatlana is at home in both camps.
The 20-year-old easily mixes with the newcomers, having been a part of the senior women’s national team for just two years, just as she does with the senior players. She is an important weapon in the team’s attack.
Before Banyana, she was in the national Under-20 team. There are a number of her former teammates from Bantwana who have also graduated to the big time.
In the two years she has spent in the senior national team, Kgatlana has grown in stature with an appearance in the Olympics under her belt. She was one of the four players on standby in Brazil. She got her chance after the injury of Shiwe Nogwanya.
“Age is just a number. The most important thing is how you carry yourself and how you perform,” Kgatlana said.
The way Kgatlana carries herself and how she has performed, has put her in a good position to be among the players who will take over when the old guard leaves the team.
Luckily for her, she has called the five women with over a 100 caps - Janine van Wyk, Portia Modise, Nompumelelo Nyandeni, Noko Matlou and Amanda Dlamini - her teammates.
“I was 18 when I came here,” Kgatlana, pictured, said. “I had to play with legends like Modise, Dlamini and Nyandeni. I learned a lot from them.
“I know that only hard work will take you where you want to be. I think that it’s good that we have a couple of news faces in the team because we can’t depend on certain players for too long.
“If they retire, then you will be forced to bring in new players before they are ready and you end up rushing the process. The fact that we are playing with them and learning from them, means that we will be ready when we have to take over. It won’t be a major change but something that we have been preparing towards.”
Banyana have been preparing towards being African champions. Those preparations will be put to the test from tomorrow in Cameroon. Kgatlana and company are grouped with the hosts Cameroon, Zimbabwe and Egypt in Group A of the Africa Women Cup of Nations (AWC).
This will be Kgatlana’s second appearance in the continental competition. In the last edition, 2014 in Namibia, she was still finding her feet in her debut year. She only played 10 minutes against Nigeria in the semi-final. This time around she is guaranteed to play more than that, especially with interim coach Desiree Ellis insisting that she will play two strikers.
“South African coaches like mobility upfront,” Kgatlana said. “They allow creative players to play with more freedom. We have more mobility under our current coach and individual brilliance is welcomed.
“That creativity and freedom is what has allowed us to score six goals in the two friendlies we played.”
The late arrival of Jermaine Seoposenwe could see Kgatlana start ahead of the US-based striker in Yaounde tomorrow against Zimbabwe in Banyana’s opening group match. That nod would be a just reward for “Pikinini” who scored a brace against the Mighty Warriors in Harare on Thursday last week.
“I have a good feeling about this tournament,” Kgatlana said. “In my first game as a striker for Banyana, I scored a brace (against Zimbabwe). Scoring is something that I am working on at training, I need to get into the box a lot so that I can score often.”
@extrastrongsa
The Star