Footballer

After a lengthy absence, midfielder Portia Modise announced her return to Banyana Banyana emphatically by scoring two goals in an international friendly. Modise, who started playing for the national team in 2000, was nominated for the Women’s Fifa World Player of the Year award in 2005 and the 2006 Confederation of African Football Women’s Football of the Year award. But in 2008 she quit the team because of irreconcilable differences with the former coach. She was recalled by new coach Joseph Mkhonza last year and scored South Africa’s only goal at the London Olympics. She also played a key role on the road to the final of the African Women’s Championship in Equatorial Guinea and was one of three nominees for the 2012 African Women’s Footballer of the Year award. Modise, who has scored 73 goals in 102 Banyana appearances, started playing soccer when she was seven. “I always dreamed of wearing the Banyana jersey,” she says.

— Fatima Asmal

Facebook: Banyana Banyana