Former Banyana star to launch book in Gaborone
Larona Makhaiza | Saturday July 2, 2022 06:00
Modise, who enjoyed a stellar career with the South Africa women's team, will be at Ba Isago University to launch the book, courtesy of Staunch Sports Management and Footballers Union of Botswana (FUB).
"This is a continuation of the launch we held back in 2018 with Teko Modise when he was also launching his own book and now they are doing it with Portia Modise,” said Baboloki Mokete, who is the Staunch Sports Management founder.
Mokete said the launch aims to motivate the youth and make them realise it is possible to walk in Modise's footsteps. Modise started playing football at a young age when she was featured for the Soweto Rangers at the Under-10 level.
She played as a professional footballer for 15 years, representing South Africa on countless occasions. In 2006, she was named the best player of the tournament at the Women’s African Football Championship.
Modise holds a great accolade to her name of being the only African Football player of scoring 100+ international goals, as her goals stand at 101 for Banyana, thus making her the only footballer across genders to reach such a milestone.
She also had the chance of representing her country at the 2012 Olympics before retiring in 2015. In her book, Portia shares the challenges she faced during her football career and also gives people a glimpse into her experience as a top footballer in a male-dominated industry and her journey with the Banyana. She also narrates the challenges she faced growing up due to poverty.
“On the day of the launch, there will be three phases of the launch, where the first phase of the launch will be the coaching clinics that have been organised and are set to take place in Gaborone West.
The coaching clinics will be done mostly with the Mexican Girls Club, which hails from G-West. Mexican are the club that went to the final of DTTC championships with Double Action women and came second.
Portia is set to have a training session with the Mexican girls and also have a word of encouragement with them and she will be accompanied by former Mares and Zebras players,” Mokete said. “The second phase of the launch on the day will be planned 5-A-Side games that are set to take place at Ba Isago in the afternoon after they have finished with coaching clinics,” Mokete said, adding the 5-Aside teams have not yet been officially created nor registered, so people who are interested in the games can put their names forward and register their teams.
The last phase of the launch will be from 6pm to 9pm where she will then launch her book before the audience joins her to watch the Mares' match against Banyana at the upcoming 2022 Africa Women Cup Of Nations in Morocco.