Nearly 30 years after she played in South Africa’s first-ever women’s international football match, Desiree Ellis coached her nation to their first title when they beat hosts Morocco in the final of the 2022 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in front of 50,000-plus fans.
It ended decades of heartbreak, as South Africa had lost in four finals: 2000, 2008, 2012 and 2018.
“It was about those that have come before, you know, that had this dream of winning the [WAFCON], that had this dream of qualifying for the World Cup,” the 60-year-old told Al Jazeera, speaking from Cape Town.
“And I think through that, everybody’s dreams have been realised. And I think it almost brought peace to those that have come before.”
Ellis defied apartheid-era laws and overcame economic hardship on her way to an illustrious playing career and becoming one of the most successful coaches in South African football. She not only became the first woman of colour to take charge of Banyana Banyana, as the national team are called, but also the first former national team player to take the role.
As well as coaching her side to AFCON glory, she also led them to qualify for the World Cup for the first time in 2019.
The trailblazing coach now has her sights on another milestone at the Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand: setting South Africa on the way to joining the elite of women’s football by getting out of the group stage for the first time.
“That will be huge because you never know what can happen after that,” Ellis said.
‘Quite an incredible player’
Raised in Salt River, a suburb of Cape Town, Ellis was obsessed with football as a kid and would repeatedly get in trouble in primary school for jumping the school fence to play with the boys. A short midfielder who also played on the wing, even at a young age Ellis was special.
Fran Hilton-Smith, a pioneer of women’s football and later Ellis’s coach at the national team, first came across Ellis when she was just 15 and one of the first people of colour to play in women’s tournaments.
“She was already incredibly talented, fast and skilful,” Hilton-Smith told Al Jazeera.
Ellis continued to break down barriers, playing regularly with and against women of different ethnic backgrounds, which was illegal during apartheid.
“From the late eighties, we also had black women’s teams coming to play in the league [that was previously whites only] because the police were not really worried about the women playing totogether. It wasn’t such a big issue as the men,” recalled Hilton-Smith.
In 1990, Nelson Mandela was released from prison, leading to the eventual end of Apartheid rule and the readmission of South Africa to the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and FIFA.
In 1993, the newly-formed South African women’s national team played a friendly against Swaziland, known now as Eswatini. Among those making their debut for Banyana Banyana was vice-captain Ellis, then 30, who made the more than 15-hour bus ride from Cape Town to Johannesburg to play in the match.
