Cape Town - Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis has had her fair share of detractors, but her legend will be indelibly engraved in the annals of African football folklore after being crowned Coach of the Year (women) for the third successive year.
Ellis was one of the celebrated stars of African football honoured at Thursday evening’s Confederation of African Football (Caf) Awards gala at the Mohamed VI Technical Centre in Rabat, Morocco.
After taking over the reins from Vera Pauw, the Dutch football coach, Ellis was appointed in an interim capacity in 2016. Two years on she was appointed head coach of the South African national women’s team.
Since then she has never looked back, and South African women’s football scaled new heights and became a force on the African continent. Banyana reached the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) final for the first time in several years and were denied by Nigeria in the 2018 final after the Super Falcons won the penalty shoot-out.
Previously, Banyana reached the finals in 1995, 2000 (Ellis played in the first two finals) and 2008.
After guiding Banyana to the 2018 final, Ellis won the Africa Coach of the Year (women) for the first time. She made it back-to-back wins when she lifted the title again in 2019 after she guided Banyana Banyana to a first-ever Fifa World Cup berth.
Recently, Ellis again qualified Banyana for the World Cup after reaching the 2022 Wafcon semi-finals in Morocco. By this time, Banyana had racked up the tag of favourites after defeating perennial champions Nigeria in the opening group encounter.
The win marked Banyana’s second successive win over Nigeria’s Super Falcons in a year. Last September, the Ellis-led side stunned Nigeria to win the Aisha Buhari Cup final 4-2 in Lagos. It was the first time in history that an African opponent had scored four goals against Nigeria’s national women’s team.
By this time, Ellis has become the heartbeat of South African women’s football. Her coaching career has come within a whisker of another landmark achievement which will be decided in Saturday’s Wafcon final in Morocco. Should South Africa defeat hosts Morocco it will mark their first conquest in African women’s football.
There could be more glory in store for Ellis and her all-conquering Banyana Banyana. The Caf ‘Women’s National Team of the Year’ will be named after the Wafcon final at the Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat.
In winning her award, Ellis saw off the challenges of three other coaches of women’s teams. All three had strong claims. They were Bruce Mwape (Zambia), Jerry Tshabalala (Mamelodi Sundowns) and Reynald Pedros (Morocco).
Ellis dedicated the award to her fellow coaches in Mzansi.
“This award for me is not really an individual award. We always say when the team does well the individual stands out,” Ellis told the media in Morocco.
“This is a team award because as a coach you work with a team, so if the team does well the individual stands out.
“I dedicate this award to the Banyana team and the coaches in our women’s football because of the contribution they have made to the national team for me to win this award.”
Tshabalala’s Sundowns claimed the other South African conquest at the awards. Sundowns were named Africa’s ‘Women’s Club of the Year’ after winning their domestic league and the inaugural Caf Women’s Champions League in Egypt in 2021.
IOL Sport