Formidable keeper Asa Rabalao retires from footballer after a spell of fours with Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies as its goalminder. Photo: Sipho Siso

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One of the best female goalkeepers to ever come out of Alexandra has called time to her acrobatics in between the sticks of Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies after four years with the side.

Asa Rabalao has been praised by her teammates, colleagues in the Sundowns family, technical staff and club management for her impeccable contribution to the successes enjoyed by Masandawana Ladies in her five year-career with the most successful side of women’s football in the country.

Rabalao started her career at a tender age with Alex Ladies which later became Blue Birds Ladies Academy with its founder Malvin Khumalo, currently the secretary general of the Alexandra Northrand Local Football Association.

At some point, Rabalao called time in her Birds career as she had been snaped in February 2016 by Hungarian side, Gyor Eto Ladies on a one-and-a-half-year deal with the club.

Rabalao (19), who had been a revelation for Birds in their two seasons in the Sasol Women’s League, Gyor Eto, a newly promoted outfit, plays its football in the Hungarian Premier League and the Indoor Futsal League.

Rabalao was spotted by Gyor scouts during the 2015 World Student Games in South Korea when she was playing for North West University of Vaal, and the club contacted Amanda Sister, a former Banyana Banyana player, seeking the services of Rabalao and a midfielder.

Rabalao’s sister suggested that the Hungarian club should look at Sundowns Ladies midfield maestro, Zanele Nhlapo, and the pair will be jetting out of South Africa as soon as the Hungarian embassy returns their passports.

A delighted Rabalao, who has made history by being the first woman footballer from Alex to play abroad, said, “I am happy as it not easy nowadays to get a player from Africa to play in Europe. I hope to use the opportunity wisely and learn a thing or two to grow my football career.”

Asked whether upon completion of her contract she would return to the Birds, Rabalao said it would depend on any other offers from European teams. “The Birds’ nest will always be my home,” said the Polokwane-born player who first came to Alex in 2008 to do her Grade 6 and has made it her home ever since.

Her coach, Khumalo, said the team and technical staff wished her all the best as she took her career to another level. “Opportunities such as this don’t come often and we hope she will fly our brand very high and make us proud at the same time,” said Khumalo. On her return, Rabalao had a stint with the Birds once again before joining Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies.

This picture of Zingawe Phakathi was captured when she went to join her Banyana Banyana teammates at the Holiday Inn in Milpark, Johannesburg. Photo: Zanele Siso of Zanephoto

She also contributed immensely to the successes also enjoyed by the ‘Beautiful Birds of Alexandra’, as the fans nicknamed them then. Rabalao played alongside another star of Alex women’s football, markswoman and goal poacher Zingawe Phakathi.

As a former and retired editor of Alex News, a Caxton local publication, I covered the Birds inside out in all the games under the Sasol Women’s League for close to 20 years and witnessed the phenomenal growth of these two outstanding female players of the beautiful game display their prowess in the game.

I developed a close relationship with both players and nurtured them with weekend in and weekend out on their games, and Zingawe was finally called up to Banyana Banyana after I wrote the story about her striking prowess and the fact that she was knocking on the door of the national women’s side.

Soon after her call up, then coach and founder of the side, Malvin Khumalo called me on the phone on the day of the publication of Zingawe’s story and wondered whether I had a connection at Safa and Banyana Banyana who spilt the beans.

My answer was an emphatic no, but he would believe me, and he said you were right she has been called up. The first time I met Zingawe was when she was selected for the inter Local Football Association games at Mayfair in 2008.

I was immediately impressed by her nimble-footedness skills and my journey with her football career started from then and peaked when was selected for Banyana Banyana. Maybe she was overwhelmed by her phenomenal success and began to
lose the plot.

I cannot rule out outside influences as a couple of teams in the Sasol Women’s League wanted her services and promised her all sorts of unrealistic pleasures. Zingawe started playing truancy and never showed up in training and vanished into thin air and nobody knew where she was and what she was doing.

When she finally surfaced, had gone straight to coach Khumalo and demanded her clearance as she wanted to join JVW Ladies side of then skipper of Banyana Banyana Janine van Wyk.

Khumalo grudgingly gave her the transfer letter, but no one knows what happened thereafter, and she never got the opportunity to kick the ball again and slipped into thin air.

After a couple of years in the limbo, Khumalo met her and managed to convince her to rejoin the team, but she was no longer the same Zingawe we used to know again. That was the way the football cookie crumbled for talented Zingawe Phakathi.