An infectious chuckle broke out of Shiwe Nogwanya’s voice as she began to reminisce about what she used to say her mother, each time she tried to discourage her from choosing football over other sporting codes when she was a kid.
Not that the then 6-year old Nogwanya was a disobedient child while she was growing up. No, in fact, she wasn’t. But the now 22-year old Banyana Banyana and Bloemfontein Celtic Ladies FC striker couldn’t help but fend off remarks which appeared as possible threats to what she wanted to become when she grew up.
“I used to say to say to her,” Nogwanya recalled. “‘One day you are going to see playing on national television,’ each time she (her mother) tried to talk me out of it. I only said that because I wanted get her off my back. I loved the game so much that quitting seemed an impossible of a task for me to implement.”
“It’s funny how things have now come full circle,” she added. “In this year alone, I’ve been at the Rio Olympics as well as the recent African Women Cup of Nations which took place in Cameroon. I played in both of those tournaments and guess what, she was the one seating at home watching me play. I reminded her about what I used to say to her regarding me playing on the world stage when I was a kid and we both laughed about it.”
Nogwanya’s mother will get to see her daughter on the television screens again this weekend, provided if her Celtic Ladies side win their Sasol National League Championship semi-final clash against Kanatla Ladies FC on Friday at the D’Almeida Stadium in Mossel Bay (Kick-off 4pm).
A win in Friday’s encounter would see the Siwelele Ladies secure their place in the finals, where the game will be televised live on SABC 1 at 3pm this Sunday.
Nogwanya said she was confident that her side would do well in this match.
“This will be my second national championship semi-final since I joined the team back in 2012,” Nogwanya said. “Last year, we failed to reach the final four simply because we lost our first match of our group. This year we made a whole lot of improvements and everybody is fired up to do well. I hope we win.”
Semi-final fixtures:
Bloemfontein Celtic Ladies FC (Free State) v Kanatla Ladies FC (Limpopo)
Coal City Wizards FC (Mpumalanga) v JVW FC (Gauteng)
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