Desiree Ellis, head coach of the South African women’s national team has beckoned on the corporate world and governmental bodies to get involved and invest in women’s football with the belief that Africa’s women’s team is closer to World Cup glory than ever.
The TotalEnergies CAF Women defending champions manager made this known in an interview at Sydney Football Stadium in Australia after Banyana Banyana bowed out of the FIFA Women’s World Cup™ following a 2-0 defeat to the Netherlands in the round of 16.
Not just South Africa, Super Falcons of Nigeria also bowed out yesterday after losing on penalties against England yesterday, leaving only Morocco as the only African women’s team still in the competition ahead of the fate-deciding clash with France today.
“With what this team has achieved, I think the corporate world needs to stand up and really take notice and be counted.
Otherwise, we’re going to come back in four years’ time and we’re going to go through the same thing and everybody’s going to say this team played and we could have gone further,” said Ellis.
With this being the first time the FIFA Women’s World Cup™ has had three African nations qualifying for the knockout stages, Ellis believes that the possibility of winning it was and remains there for any team at this stage.
“When I look at the World Cup, the possibility of us winning it was there and it was there for everyone.
So, we urge the corporates to come on board to assist here and the government to step in and assist in growing the women’s game” concluded Ellis.
The current CAF Women’s Coach of the Year has now added another impressive achievement to her already outstanding profile after being the first coach to qualify a senior South African national team to FIFA World Cup™ knockout stage.
