Hildah Magaia is both excited and nervous to play in her first World Cup, but she has vowed to be one of the solutions for Banyana Banyana’s scoring woes.
A product of the Sasol League, Magaia cut her football teeth at the Tshwane University of Technology, captaining the side to various trophies including the Varsity Football crown.
It was her football and leadership qualities that saw her soar, bagging her first international move to Swedish side Moron BK before moving to South Korea last year, joining Sejong Sportstoto.
Her move to the Sportstoto ensured that Magaia grew in leaps and bounds that she earned a call-up to Banyana’s final squad for the 2022 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) finals.
The 28-year-old would go on to etch her name in the history books, scoring the brace that sunk hosts Morocco in the final as the South Africans won 2-1 to secure their first continental crown.
Those heroics were expected to lure Magaia away from Sportstoto to greener pastures, but that hasn’t been the case. Not that it matters, as she made Banyana’s final World Cup squad for the very first time.
Granted the finals in Australia and New Zealand would mark her first appearance at the event, having missed out on Banyana’s first appearance in 2019, she’s confident she can produce when it counts.
“Since it’s my first World Cup, I can say before everything else: there are a lot of emotions and nervousness. But after all, I believe that I am capable of anything,” she said.
“It’s about me being myself and getting all the support that I can get from teammates. And working together as a team so that we can be able to achieve whatever we want.”
Magaia has so much belief in herself that she suggests she could have been the team’s missing link from 2019 up front, after Banyana scored only one goal and conceded eight in the group stage.
“I think it’s all about practising and making sure that we get everything right. Back then and now, I think things are different. Scoring is a problem, but I believe we worked on that,” she said.
“I could also say that I wasn’t there (in the last edition) but as goal scorer I believe that I can do much better as a goal scorer – we also have a lot of scorers in the team as well.”
And unlike 2019 where they qualified as mere Wafcon finalists, the African Queens will be watched closely in the group stage – against Sweden, Argentina, and Italy – hence the need to perform.
And that’s not all, their recent impasse with Safa, which needed the timely intervention of the Motsepe Foundation, amid their send-off match and contractual obligations, will not make things easier for them.
But as Banyana’s first and last group of players flew out to Oceania on Wednesday and Thursday respectively, the 26-member squad (23 official and three standby) had long known what’s at stake.
“I think most of all, it’s about us, knowing why we are here and have been selected – the hard work that we have to put in to be a better team,” Magaia said after the final squad announcement.
“Just because we got selected, it doesn’t mean we need to relax and say ‘I am in the team and there’s nothing more that I need to do’.”
@Mihlalibaleka
IOL Sport