Salgado ready to lead Banyana line

Salgado ready to lead Banyana line

Banyana Banyana star attacker Gabriella Salgado is back in the team after missing out on the historic Women™s African Cup of Nations due to injury and is ready to lead from the front. 

With the African champions missing a number of key and senior personnel due to injuries, travel documents and personal reasons, Salgado is one of the players tasked with playing a leading role in tomorrow™s international friendly against Australia in London.

"Obviously as a senior player, you have to help the young ones and guide them, put them under your wing and make sure they're comfortable," said the JVW FC striker.

"At the end of the day, it is a team and we're here to succeed, and the only way to succeed is to work hard together as a team."

Salgado, 24, fractured her collarbone on the eve of Banyana™s departure for the 2022 WAFCON during a Hollywoodbets Super League game between JVW and Bloemfontein Celtic.

She also missed the back-to-back friendlies against Brazil last month but now gets an opportunity to re-establish herself in the team ahead of next year™s FIFA Women™s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, and she is confident they will fare better this time around.

"They're ranked 12th in the world, so... They've got a pretty good squad but, we can see what football [can do]. Football is a game, where there's either a winner or a loser. Hopefully, we can go and see and you never know what can happen," she added.

"Obviously [the key is to] make less mistakes. I think we did struggle a bit with mistakes but it's football, we learn from it and hopefully going into the Australia game we don't make the same mistakes, go forward and do our best - try to score a few goals as well."

By Velile Mnyandu