WATCH: Banyana star Thembi Kgatlana showing them flames in Spain

South Africa women’s team striker Thembi Kgatlana. Picture: Ayanda Ndamane/African News Agency (ANA)

South Africa women’s team striker Thembi Kgatlana. Picture: Ayanda Ndamane/African News Agency (ANA)

Published Mar 26, 2021

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JOHANNESBURG - South Africa women’s footballer Thembi Kgatlana has performed admirably this season in Spain with 10 goals in the Primera Division for her club SD Eibar.

The 24-year-old Kgatlana joined Eibar from SL Benfica in July last year and has already taken her goal tally into double digits from just 20 appearances.

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“Each match I am more confident and more focused and ready to play. I want to be a team player, that is a side of my game that I have been wanting to grow,” Kgatlana told The COSAFA Show.

“For me it is not just the goals that I score, but the assists that I get the crucial penalties that I win for the club. I feel I am ticking that aspect of being a team player and getting better.”

Kgatlana said living in a small town suits her well.

— Joe Crann (@YesWeCrann) November 8, 2020

“It is a small city, everyone is fanatical about the club because it is the only one here. It is not like Soweto where you have Kaizer Chiefs, Orlando Pirates and Swallows, here there is just one team.

ALSO READ: Banyana coach Ellis over the moon with overseas interest in SA players

“Everywhere you walk in the city, people in their homes, on school bags for kids, they are flying the flag of Eibar.”

The standard of football in the Spanish League is the highest she has ever experienced, explains Kgatlana.

“Spain is more about technique and intelligence. I have been in the US, which is a bit of both, technique and experience. About 80 to 90 percent of the girls that play for the US national team play in the NWSL [National Women’s Soccer League] so it makes it one of the strongest leagues in the world.

“Like I said, they are big on technique and video analysis, that kind of thing. We know that women’s football is grown and changing, so I also went to China more or less on the back of that. There it was more about physicality.”

— gsport4girls (@gsport4girls) March 8, 2021

African News Agency (ANA)

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