Former SA soccer coach has hands full in South Sudan

SA’s Shilene Booysen is coming up for a year in charge of the South Sudan senior women’s football team, and it is rather fitting that her choice of chilling is the TV series Elementary.

You see, Booysen’s mission is to turn elementary to excellence in the baking-hot East African nation.

The former Banyana Banyana SA women's video-performance analyst now has to see the bigger picture in charge of the poverty-stricken country’s national team.

“People need to understand that South Sudan is very underdeveloped. There’s nothing like shopping malls. Here it’s a case of one-shop-sells-all. In fact the majority of locals’ livelihood depends on selling stuff on the street or at small markets.”

That extends into the sporting sphere where a grass field is a luxury. “It’s all dust, gravel or mud fields, which makes talent identification tricky, because you’ve got to imagine how their skills would translate to a grass surface.”

The national team have an AstroTurf at their disposal, courtesy of the South Sudan Football Association and world governing body Fifa’s funding programme, but even that comes with hidden perils.

South Sudan sears under the harsh African sun. “We have to train early, like 6.30am. The mercury sometimes nudges the 50°C mark, and then one must remember that it’s about 10°C hotter on the AstroTurf.”

That brings with it more problems. “A lot of the girls’ kit isn’t original. Boots especially have a very short life in the oppressive heat.”

But Booysen is a firm believer in the phrase: “if you can’t stand the heat get out of the kitchen”.

“Last year was incredibly hard, but I love the football environment, and the incredible support from the president of the football federation, he’s been a revelation. There are so many challenges that come with being accountable in the position and the accompanying politics etc and having to take the lead. I can see the problems Desiree Ellis [Banyana Banyana coach] faced when she first took over the reins.”

I first met Booysen on a flight to Brazzaville in the Republic of Congo ahead of the 2015 African Games and her in-flight entertainment consisted entirely of video-editing matches and training sessions!

When it comes to the kitchen, the former engineer’s motherly nature comes to the fore.

Football fills the Cape Flats-born mom’s life, on the field and at her home in the capital of Juba. “I watch so much football around the world. I’ve set up two computers at my apartment and then I invite some of the girls here.”

There, she fills their minds with football and their stomachs with healthy food. “I’ll cook for them as often as I can because they struggle with the correct nutrition. I try to spoil them in that way.”

Fruit in particular is highly expensive in South Sudan, and Booysen has tried to set aside part of her budget for this. “Some of the girls wouldn’t have eaten something as simple as an apple in six months. An apple costs the equivalent of R15 here. In a country that is oil-rich but dirt poor that’s a luxury.”

While her charges juggle footballs, Booysen juggles her own family life. She adopted son Xavier when he was just six months old. He was supposed to return to his drug-addict parents once they cleaned up their life. “They never did and he’s now officially my child. He’s almost 12, and when he reaches 18 he can make his own decision about what he wants to do with his life.

“He’s a very independent little guy, raised like that ... he lives with my sister while I’m away and he fully understands that mom is away for now. We have a great relationship in that we both love each other very much and at the same time want the other to be able to chase our dreams.”

One of Booysen’s dreams came true in 2021 when South Sudan received their first Fifa women’s world ranking and the nation is now ranked 175th.

“Getting a Fifa ranking is so big in the football world. We worked so hard at it, through so many challenges. When we were finally ranked, it was a huge thing for us, I cried throughout my entire soul because it meant so much to both me and the girls.”

She’s at pains to point out the hardship the girls have endured. “So many of them come from refugee camps, they’ve lived there practically all their lives, 90% of them don’t live with their parents, they live with family or friends, actually with anyone who will take them in. They’re basically coming from nothing but still want to dream, and they do it daily. They’re such a part of me.”

Booysen has a two-year contract with South Sudan after which she will weigh up her options. “Maybe my football journey isn’t forever and I don’t really want to coach until I’m an old crock,” she laughs.

“But I do truly want to leave a legacy here once I’m done. I can already see the football and personal growth. Mindsets are changing and maybe my journey will continue through the continent, helping other African countries using analysis as a tool.”

For now though Booysen will continue to build, engineering those elementary skills and hoping that football dreams born in dust don’t go to seed in South Sudan.