Strike a Rock

​Title: Strike a Rock – The Thembi Kgatlana Story 
Author: Nikolaos Kirkinis
Publisher: Jacana
Reviewer: Hazel Makuzeni
The book is a gripping account of one of the best female footballers South Africa has ever produced. It’s so engaging, it was hard for me to put down once I started reading. The book offers an insight into the incredible journey of a sporting hero from humble beginnings to international recognition. It’s a story of one woman’s passion for football that defies all the odds.    
Born on 2 May 1996, Chrestinah Thembi Kgatlana grew up not afraid of playing soccer with the 

in the dusty and gravelled streets of Mohlakeng township in Johannesburg’s West Rand. She grew up with her mother (Constance Masinga) and father (Matlhomola Kgatlana) and two boy siblings, Tumelo and Mpho. Technically Mpho, a year older, is Thembi’s cousin but to her he’s her brother – they’re inseparable. They all lived in her maternal grandmother’s house after she passed away. Although tiny in stature, Thembi was fearless even as a child, playing rough with the boys and mischievous most times. This got her in hot water at home and in school.  
Not a shy one, at primary school she signed up for any and every sporting event. Her amazing talent in football is soon spotted and in Grade 5 she’s invited to be part of a real team – a boys’ soccer team. Back then, only boys played the sport in school. She’s the laughing stock – girls taunt her for playing a boys game and her parents discourage her love for the game. Her mother tries to teach her how to brew umqomothi (traditional beer) in case she has to take over the family business one day – but with no success. Thembi is not interested, period!
Her excellent striking skills are noticed by a local recruiter who invites Thembi for training with a local women’s football team – the Parma Ladies FC – at the tender age of 13. Thembi’s meteoric rise is unstoppable. In Grade 8 she’s officially invited by SAFA (South African Football Association) to train with the South African Girls’ National under 17 squad. From there, she joins the HPC (High Performance Centre) as a student footballer. The HPC puts her through a rigorous training schedule. Her time there taught her about the importance of respect, teamwork and staying focused.  
Her major break comes when she’s selected for trials by Vera Pauw, the legendary Dutch coach and now coach for the women’s national football team, Banyana Banyana. She’s looking for a squad to take to the Africa’s Women’s Cup of Nations (AWCON). Thembi’s first game with Banyana Banyana is an international friendly against Namibia in August 2014. In between training with the team, she’s also preparing for her final matric exams. She passes with two distinctions, including an A for isiZulu. Thembi accepts the invitation by the University of the Western Cape (UWC) to study there where she enrols for a bachelor’s degree in tourism in 2015. She continues to practice and plays for the UWC women’s football team. She also joins the boys at Ajax Cape Town for gruelling training sessions.
Thembi is only 20 years old when she plays for Banyana Banyana in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She signs with one of the biggest women’s football team in the world, the Houston Dash from Texas, USA. The head coach is none other than Vera Pauw, former Banyana Banyana coach. In January 2019 she signs with the Beijing bG Phoenix – earning six times more than she earned in the US. What readers might not know incidentally is that the biggest women’s football league in the world can be found in China.
Thembi has fought many obstacles in her young life and has emerged triumphantly. Coming from a place where a girl had no business playing soccer to now being a role model for many young women in the country. She has faced addiction and its destruction to family life when her elder brother, Tumelo, became a drug addict and a thief. She’s experienced first-hand discrimination that women face in sport. She won Player of the Tournament for two international competitions in a row. She won both the 2018 CAF (Confederation of African football) Goal of the Year award and, CAF African Women Footballer of the Year award. In 2019 she scored Banyana Banyana’s first ever World Cup goal in the team’s first ever World Cup tournament in France playing against Spain. In the same year she also founded the Thembi Kgatlana Foundation. An initiative to make a difference in the life of the South African girl child.  
Thembi is a living legend, a resilient footballer, a world-class striker with lightning speed and a nightmare for opposition defenders on the field.  A thrilling and inspirational read. ​