Banyana Banyana legend, Portia Modise, shared a touching tale of how she navigated a male-dominated sport as a young girl.
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The story
The legendary Portia Modise, who is Banyana Banyana's all-time top goal-scorer with 101 goals, is one of South African women's football's strongest pioneers.
Having earned 120 caps for the South African National Women's team, the outspoken Modise has never shied away from sharing her story of defeating the odds as a woman in the beautiful game.
Modise chose football at a young age, despite netball being the more popular choice for girls getting into sports. She started playing aged seven and grew up playing football in the street with the boys in her neighbourhood in Soweto.
She sat down with Kaizer Chiefs and Bafana Bafana legend, Jabu Mahlangu, to speak about how she got away with playing junior club football with boys, using an identity of her neighbour:
"So because I was going to be playing with boys, I couldn't be a girl. So, I get a birth certificate from the boy next door, I was going to be and play as Siphiwe,"shared Modise, revealing in the snippet that she played alongside Reneilwe Letsholonyane as a youth player in Soweto.
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Watch below:
Modise once told FarPost how she was scouted by School of Excellence alongside Bafana Bafana legend, Steven Pienaar, but wasn't able to join the elite academy on a full-time basis, as it only catered to boys.
"I was selected to be part of the School of Excellence with Steven Pienaar, they didn't know I was a girl when they picked me," shared "Bashin."
"They wouldn't allow me [to join permanently] when they discovered that I was a girl. And they couldn't keep me there because they would stay there as boys, shower as boys. I didn't make a fuss of it, but I took their advice to find a ladies' team," added Modise, who went on to make a Banyana debut as a 16-year-old back in 2000.
Here's another snippet of Portia Modise's interview with Shuffle:
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