My name is Eletina Mwanza, I am 20 years old. I developed an interest to play football when I was about 12 years old, I could admire boys who could play football with plastic balls and at times joined them.
Our house is near Matanda ground in Kafue town, during weekends we could watch bigger boys play football against teams from far places, this created a burning desire in me, I could say, ‘‘one day I will also play in front of big crowds’’.
We were spotted by a man whilst playing football with plastic balls under a big tree opposite the main ground, this man told us that he was going to teach us real football and that we were not going to play under a tree but in the ground. This man is Mr. Mwansa who later became our coach, he taught us a lot apart from football skills. We won the first tournament for under 17 girls in 2007 for the whole country.
We have won trophies with this man as our coach both at home and far away towns, he is our coach girls call him ‘‘uncle’’ that’s what we call him. He is also called coach ‘‘Colombo.’’
Our coach bought us boots and took five of us to Lusaka for national team trials, we were a bit scared but he encouraged us in the end we all passed our trials and played for the national women under 20 for the first time. It was fantastic!
Football has taken me to a lot of countries namely. Egypt, Ghana, South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Angola. It has taught me to be focused in life and how to be calm even in tough times, I have learnt to set goals in life and the importance of team work if you want to win a game or football.
Currently I am rewriting in some subjects that I did not do well due to my absence from school because of my being with the national woman’s soccer team.
I am also helping my coach (Mr. Mwansa) in organizing and coaching the young ones, it’s like I have become a role model to many young girls in my area. I am coaching under 10 boys, under 12 girls and under 14 boys.
My dream is to play professional football in England, Germany, Italy even South Africa. I intend to end my career as a coach for the Zambia National Soccer team (for women).
ELETINA MWANZA