Roxanne Barker: No place better than SA

It’s a tricky question with a complicated answer for the 24-year-old Banyana Banyana goalkeeper, who was born in Pietermaritzburg but moved to the United States as an eight-year-old.

She has a home in Cape Town and is currently based in Iceland. “I usually just say home is where my parents live or, if they are busy moving around, I say where my grandparents live,” Barker said with a laugh.

Her laughter was refreshing, having spoken about the issue of identity and searching for a place where she belongs with a sombre tone. She started playing football in the US because of wanting to belong somewhere.

“It was difficult to find my place in a foreign country as a child,” Barker said. “That’s why I played soccer, because the only friend I had at the time (Quinn Stewart) played it. She would play soccer at lunch and if I didn’t go to play I would be there alone, so I had to go play with her. That’s why I have always had this love for South Africa, even though I left at a young age.

“When I am done with my soccer, I want to live in South Africa. I don’t want to live anywhere else. I have been to a lot of places but there is no place better than South Africa. It made me upset when people asked me why I came back from America when I returned to the country. I told them this is a wonderful place. Yes, we have our problems, but every country does. I prefer South Africa’s problems to other people’s problems.”

Barker has had plenty of problems in her bid to make the No 1 jersey her own in Banyana Banyana. The first was finding her place in the team. Even though she started her career with Durban Ladies – where she played at centreback before changing to goalkeeper – and had a stint with Maties in Stellenbosch, Barker hasn’t played in South Africa enough to be seen as “one of our own”.

Roxanne Barker of South Africa during the All Africa Games Qualifier match between Botswana and South Africa on 21 March 2015 at Molepolole Stadium Pic Sydney Mahlangu/BackpagePix

It doesn’t help that she speaks with an American accent, which she has tried, unsuccessfully, to lose – and the fact that many South Africans saw her for the first time in the 2012 Olympics in London with butterfingers that saw Banyana Banyana smashed 4-1 by Sweden. She was relegated to the bench in the next two matches, with Thokozile Mndaweni marshalling the goals.

It was the same case in the African Women’s Championship (AWC) in Namibia last year. “I was very young in the Olympics,” Barker said.

“I was struggling to deal with everything that came with it, from the pressure and the responsibility of being on such a big stage. I was also still in college and was balancing my schoolwork with playing for the national team. I would be in camp for a month, which meant I missed a month’s chemistry and would have to come back and catch up. It was stressful. I am looking forward to being on a stage like that and only focus on soccer.”

For Barker to return to the Olympics, she and her Banyana Banyana team-mates have to either beat Equatorial Guinea in Bata tomorrow, or a draw with goals after playing to a goalless draw in the first leg. If they can do that, now that Barker is the first choice goalkeeper, it would wash away many of the disappointments she has experienced with the team.

She was there when they failed to qualify for the World Cup and she arrived on the day Banyana Banyana lost the coin toss in the All-Africa Games in Congo, where they were tied with Ghana. She is now a more confident player, buoyed by the clean sheet she kept in Tembisa two weeks ago.

“There are times when it feels like I am a person without a country because I was a foreigner in the US and was also looked at as an outsider in South Africa,” Barker said.

“The one thing that makes me feel at home is donning that Banyana Banyana shirt and doing my best for South Africa.”