Young women’s soccer star from Tuks plays to honour her grandmother
One of Tuks' young women's soccer stars tells her special story and how she eventually became a star in the big city from the dusty streets of a small town in the Northern Cape.
Most of us have precious memories of times spent with our grandparents.
Not that love is ever a competition, but Tuks’ Ibanathi Msindo could be forgiven for thinking her grandmother, Nomakhaza Modisapudi, is the most special grandmother in South Africa.
Why would she think that, many would wonder? Well, it’s not every day that a grandmother packs up and moves to another province just so that her granddaughter can live out her dream. That’s exactly what Msindo’s grandmother did.
For as long as she can remember, the Tuks education student has been crazy about soccer. She was barely three years old when she first started kicking a ball around. At seven, she and her nephews began playing soccer with passion in the streets of Pampierstad in the Northern Cape. She was more than a match for the boys in their street games. Before long, she was playing for one of the clubs and Msindo loved every moment.
One of the reasons she and her mother moved to Kagiso on the West Rand was so that Msindo could continue living her dream of playing football. She was 15 when she started to play for the Nicko Taurus Academy. Unfortunately, her mom died just as she started to settle in.
Things looked bleak. There weren’t many opportunities for talented female soccer players in the Northern Cape if she had to go back. She talked to her grandmother about it. Without thinking twice, her grandmother offered to move to Gauteng to look after her grandchild.
Photo: Supplied
“It wasn’t easy. My grandmother lived in a big house. To support me in Kagiso meant she had to live in a shack. She didn’t complain once. It was important to my grandmother that I continued playing. I will forever be grateful to her for all her support. So every time I play, my biggest motivation is to make her proud,” Msindo explained during a recent interview.
The young student is doing a good job of playing her favourite sport. In Tuks’ first game of the season in the Hollywoodbets Super League, she starred as a defensive midfielder. Getting the player of the match award. Tuks won 3-0 against Stellenbosch. In their next game on June 19, Tuks will host Mamelodi Sundowns.
Asked what she thinks she did good to get the player of the match award against Stellenbosch, she was honest and analytical.
“I think it might have been my distribution skills. It is important that when I pass, the ball doesn’t get intercepted. I am quite good at stealing balls. The one thing I want to do is to make things on the pitch as easy as possible for my teammates,” she remarked.
In the three years playing for Tuks, Msindo has never been on the winning side when playing against Mamelodi Sundowns. It does not, however, mean that Tuks will ever go down without a fight.
“It would be special to beat Mamelodi Sundowns. We have been putting in the long, hard hours to be competitive every time we take to the field. The goal is to bring pride to the University of Pretoria. We really would like to win a second title for Tuks when contesting the Varsity Cup or the USSA Championships,” she concluded.
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