Johannesburg - The SA Women's football team were awarded a heroes welcome at the OR Tambo Airport on Tuesday as they held their first-ever Women's African Cup of Nations (Wafcon) trophy.
Among them was a certain midfield rock flashing a bright smile and what has become a signature red lipstick on Nomvula Kgoale. The 26-year-old took a while to get going in the tournament but when she did, she left scars that only Botswana and Morocco can bear.
Apart from her usual impeccable breaking down of opponents play and her hard-running style, Kgaole provided the killer pass to set up youngster Nthabiseng Majiya against Botswana before she put Jermaine Seoposenwe through on goal for the opening goal in the final.
She has won the hearts of the entire football fraternity with not only her work ethic and desire on the pitch, but also doing it without smudging her lipstick - best demonstrated in one of the Banyana celebration videos which has gone viral.
Tonight we celebrate 😭![CDATA[]]>🇿![CDATA[]]>🇦![CDATA[]]>💚![CDATA[]]>💛
— Banyana_Banyana (@Banyana_Banyana) July 23, 2022
CHAMPIONS !!!#TotalEnergiesWAFCON2022 pic.twitter.com/7WV0i9p6gF
"I've been putting on my lipstick for a while now, but I guess South Africa is only noticing now but my pictures from a while back will show you my lipstick," she told IOL Sport.
Banyana are still on cloud nine at the moment as the congratulatory applause at the airport shot them right back to the moment they heard the final whistle go in Morocco.
Head coach Desiree Ellis has encouraged her ladies to rock as hard as they want in celebration of their achievements but according to Kgoale, she also left them with a hefty reminder of what is to come and the kind of responsibility being African champions brings on.
"While we are still enjoying our moment right now, the coach did say that the whole process will start again. We had targets heading into the tournament but we can't think because we're the best in Africa that we're done, we have bigger things to look at," she explained.
One of the things on the agenda at a packed OR Tambo was the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture's throwing in an additional R5.8 million bonus adding to the amount of R9.2 million the ladies were promised on their departure to Morocco.
Kgoale revealed how grateful she and her teammates were at being acknowledged for their work in bringing pride to the nation.
"I was really happy and I could tell when I looked at the girls that they were happy because in the past they would give us stuff and you could sense the dissatisfaction, and the feeling of we deserved more but now we can see they realise things are changing.”
IOL Sport