First there was Letsile Tebogo, who put Botswana on the sporting map when he received gold within the 200m on the Paris Olympics. Now, there's Gaborone United Women, who turned the nation's first soccer staff to win a regional trophy and can make historical past after they seem on the CAF Champions League this yr.
United claimed the Cosafa Girls's Champions League Cup – a event performed amongst southern African golf equipment – after they defeated the Zambian side Zesco Ndola Girls 4-3 on penalties after a 1-1 attract August and their victory means they'll signify the area on the eight-team CAF Champions League event this yr.
“It's an ideal achievement for the entire nation. It's our first main cup. No different staff, whether or not it's age group or senior, at membership or nationwide degree, has managed to convey a cup dwelling,” United Women' coach, William Monene, tells Shifting the Goalposts.
It isn't the membership's first style of success. United are back-to-back Botswana Girls's Championship winners and their rise has been swift and gorgeous. They had been promoted to the primary division in 2023 and completed second that yr, claimed the title in 2024 after which challenged themselves to not solely win once more however higher their very own statistics in 2025.
“Final yr we had one draw within the league and our scoring statistics weren't that very good,” Monene says. “This time round, we sat down and mentioned, let's see how we will enhance the statistics. After the tip of this league, we discovered that we broke all of the data.”
United received all 14 of their fixtures on this yr's league and scored 61 objectives, considerably greater than second-placed Double Motion (35) and conceded solely three. They took that goalscoring kind into the CAF Champions League qualifiers, the place they discovered the web 11 occasions in three group-stage matches (the identical quantity as earlier CAF Champions League winners Mamelodi Sundowns) and 4 occasions within the knockouts, greater than anybody else.
Their attacking efforts had been led by the striker Gaonyadiwe Ontlametse, who scored seven occasions in 4 matches, together with 5 towards Lesotho's Kick4Life, and is essential to their success. “She's one participant whose technical talents are very, excellent so she will be able to rating from head to toe,” Monene says. “She has velocity, she has aggression and is an effective finisher.”
He warns, although, that each one that is probably not sufficient when the staff will get to the Champions League and faces more durable opposition. On the time of writing, 5 of the eight groups for the event have been confirmed, together with the defending champions, TP Mazembe, the Moroccan champions AS FAR, and two groups from the Union of North African soccer: Mali's USFAS Bamako from the Western Zone A and Ivory Coast's ASEC Mimosas from Western Zone B. The groups from the Jap and Central areas might be decided by a qualifier this month and all of them are anticipated to check United. “One factor she ought to enhance is that she's a participant that doesn't wish to play with out the ball,” Monene says of Ontlametse. “So typically once we are towards a staff the place we're compelled to defend extra, she would possibly wrestle.”
Problem accepted.
Ontlametse says that whereas it's true she prefers to play when she goes for objective, she is keen to make the required changes the place required: “I take pleasure in attacking soccer however I additionally perceive that on the highest degree you could adapt. Within the Champions League, video games are extra tactical and if meaning sacrificing a little bit of my attacking freedom for the great of the staff, I'm prepared.”
If the file is something to go by, the remainder of the United Women squad seem to really feel the identical means. They're unbeaten in over a yr and the final time they misplaced a match was on the 2024 CAF Champions League Cosafa qualifiers after they misplaced 9-8 in a penalty shootout towards the College of the Western Cape within the ultimate. “We had been simply so shut then,” Monene says. “It could have been so painful to get to a different ultimate and lose, particularly because it was my third in a row.”
In 2023, Monene took Double Motion Women to the ultimate of the 2023 CAF Champions League Cosafa qualifiers the place they misplaced towards South Africa's Mamelodi Sundowns. “It was certain to occur that I might win one.”
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It's not simply the luck of threes. Monene calls himself “a coach that could be very decided, who's very energetic and who's keen to work with gamers” and has the file to show it. Other than his function at United Women, he additionally runs the Future Stars Academy which caters to younger males between the ages of 9 and 20 and has offered greater than 30 gamers to the Botswana males's Premier League. “I prefer to work in growth lots,” he says.
He additionally has the assist of the buildings within the nation's soccer to assist. Although the league as a complete is just not skilled Gaborone United, owned by the businessman and civil engineer Nicholas Zakhem, have a males's and girls's staff and are stepping up.
“We have now moved away from a purely novice setup to 1 that gives structured participant salaries and incentives,” Owe Mmolawa, the membership's normal supervisor, says. “We aren't but on the degree of the continent's greatest golf equipment however we're about scaling up sustainably every year.”
They hope others within the nation will observe swimsuit as Botswana continues to place itself on the world footballing map. With a inhabitants of over 2.5 million folks, Botswana is forty fourth out of 54 international locations on the continent when it comes to dimension nevertheless it punches nicely above it weight. The nationwide ladies's aspect have been concerned within the final two Afcons and reached the quarter-finals on their first look in 2022, whereas their males's staff will seem on the continental showpiece for the primary time since 2012 this yr. Now, additionally they have a membership staff within the CAF Champions League.
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