It is without a doubt that coach Desiree Ellis made our Channel Africa Exceptional Africans list. 

The route to success did not come easy for the former Bayana Bayana captain, but her name will now be forever etched in South African women's football history. 

The Ellis story begins in Salt River where a young girl living with her grandmother was so good she left many residents of this little corner of the mother city in disbelief that she could outplay the boys. 

In an interview with Channel Africa’s Neto Chemane, Ellis expressed how she only wanted to play football growing up and even shared how her love for the beautiful game cost her a job at the meat market where she worked in the storeroom. 

“The South African women's team had now been allowed to play after the release of South African former president Nelson Mandela.

“I made the team as vice-captain with Anthea Charles as our captain and on our way back from the trials our mini-bus had a tyre puncture which ultimately cost me my job because I couldn’t make it to work on time the following day and that’s when I made my decision and followed my passion,” says Ellis.

The 2022 Women's Africa Cup of Nations winning coach also revealed to Channel Africa how her unwavering determination led her to have lunch with anti-apartheid activist, Nobel Peace Prize recipient and South Africa’s black president Nelson Mandela, then receiving a silver presidential medal for football from former President Thabo Mbeki, playing an exhibition football game with former South African president Jacob Zuma and most recently meeting with current South African president Cyril Ramaphosa after leading South Africa to WAFCON success. 

This is no small accomplishment for a woman of colour living through a transition from a political system based on institutionalized racial segregation and discrimination to a democratic country in a world where women still need to fight for their place in a significantly male-dominated society let alone sport. 

Speaking on what she says is arguably her most memorable and best game as a player, Ellis said, “…I think it might have been the first one when you’ve dreamt of playing for the national team and now it becomes a reality after 15 years since making your debut at club level. I scored a hattrick in that game.” 

After several disappointments in the past, Ellis had learned and experienced a lot in the game.

Two years after taking charge of the team, the Spurs Ladies legend will dominate the COSAFA Cup with Bayana Bayana, winning it from 2018 to 2020. It is a championship she is familiar with, having won it as a player. 

It became clearer that Ellis is up to something with the team when they defeated Nigeria to win the Aisha Buhari Cup.  

Desiree Ellis’ Banyana Banyana stood against 60 000 Moroccan fans to defeat the Atlas Lionesses and win the continent’s biggest women’s football tournament for the first time. 

In terms of footballing, a tournament of this magnitude had only been won once by the men’s national team 26 years prior.

Sacrificing years of her life unemployed as a breadwinner to gamble on a dream with all odds stacked against her and ultimately carving the way for future footballing icons from Africa.

Her name adds weight to the pendulum of equality in football. Desiree Ellis epitomises an Exceptional African.

--Sifiso Hlope/ChannelAfrica--