Banyana coach Desiree Ellis handed technical team boost

Banyana, currently led by coach Desiree Ellis and assistant coach Thinasonke Mbuli, are off to their second successive World Cup and will be bolstered by additional personnel before the tournament in Australia and New Zealand in July.

Without revealing the names, Steenbok revealed two highly valued South African female candidates will be announced, as part of the national team brains trust.

“As part of our support, going to the Women's world cup in 2023, the stakes are a little higher and so from the association, and this is in consultation with the coach, we will appoint a technical advisor, who is a woman, who is South African. 

And also the second assistant. That's our approach in terms of the technical support of the Banyana team", Steenbok revealed during a wide-ranging media briefing at Safa House on Friday. 

Ellis praised the association and Steenbok's investment in the advancement of the women's national team as they look to compete with nations with substantially bigger resources.

"We saw at the last World Cup, the support staff, the top teams had. You look at the recent Euros, when the English team went up to get their awards the staff kept coming and kept coming, it was almost like another team. 

So a big thank you to the TD (technical director) for helping us with that, cos it's very important that we get more hands onboard. And with more hands (onboard) also more ideas, and more strategies, and more interaction which will make the team better", Ellis said. 

As previously reported by SABC Sport, Steenbok confirmed Safa’s appointments of David Nyathi and Aaron Mokoena as Chief and Assistant Chief Scout respectively, as well as a performance analyst to help Ellis and her technical team monitor players before the final squad is selected.