24 Nov 2016

A burning passion for football has made Kesego Kgaudi to form a ladies football team in Tsabong, as a way of encouraging women in Kgalagadi District to engage in sports.

Makgabaneng, as Kgaudi is affectionately called by her peers, says she started playing football with boys in the street and at primary school.

It was only when she was doing form one that she was able to play football with girls because her school had a girls’ team.

As her love for football grew, the now 28-year-old Kgaudi, decided to form Naughty Galz Football Club three years ago, and they participated in the Kgalagadi South Women’s Football League that comprises of seven teams. She currently administers and plays for the team.

Kgaudi said she formed the team because she wanted to use it as a tool to take youth off the streets. She said the reason why she loves soccer is because it brings people together and helps to create a sense of belonging and to develop skills in a friendly environment.

 “I have many reasons why I formed this team but I won’t mention them all, I do not want to see any young person having their talents wasted because they don’t have anywhere to go, I want to see my team members representing my country at international levels,” Kgaudi said recently in an interview.

Kgaudi said Naughty Galz was founded in 2013, after taking part in a women’s tournament that was sponsored by veteran women’s football administrator, Senki Sesinyi, and was registered as a Society last year.

She said their objectives are to ensure that every girl and woman willing to play football are given the opportunity to do so, promote female opportunities on and off the pitch, improve quality of women’s football competitions, and encourage the promotion and marketing of women’s football.

She said everyone who is willing to play soccer is allowed to be part of her team and there is no age restriction. Kgaudi said they attend school sports competitions to search for talent.

She further said culture is barrier in women football across the nation and its time to change that, it has always been considered as a sport for men as they are assertive, strong and the like competition.

She pleaded with members of the community in the Kgalagadi District to rally behind the team. “Our community is not giving us any support. We always reach out to them to help us with the little they can afford but they do not help. This affects morale of the players since they don’t have any shoulder to cry on,” she said.

She said the team is managed by men and women who have sport background with women dominating the managerial positions.

She noted that starting a team is a challenge because one has to deal with people from different cultures, age and backgrounds.

“I always encourage them (players) to come to training and I also have to remind them time and again. Sometimes you have to understand how their mind work and I am lucky because I learnt a lot about how to deal with them, at first it was difficult, I wanted to give up but I had sleepless nights thinking about how many people are going to suffer because of my decision,” she stressed.

She added they struggle to honour away fixture since they struggle to raise money for travelling.

 “Playing for nothing is financially draining us as football teams because we have to dig into our pockets and this leads to poor performances from teams,” Kgaudi said. BOPA