Banyana Banyana goalkeeper Jessica Williams is happy to have made her dream of playing for the national team a reality.
The midfielder-turn-goalkeeper played a vital role in helping her team top Group A in the ongoing Cosafa Cup to advance. Her kicking technique has caught the attention of many people, explaining good distribution of balls from the back.
However, as she reveals, despite loving the game from an early age, her interest was elsewhere but she managed to double-task something that put her at logger-heads with the parents.
I used to also do beauty pageants – Williams
“It started with my dad because we had these Sunday league matches when I was growing up in the neighborhood of Parkwoods. I would go to the field with my dad, I was a daddy’s girl, and we would watch the games. I would just follow him around the field, cheer for the boys, and then kick a ball around. I think that is where it started,” she told Safa media team.
“The problem is I used to also do beauty pageants. My mom would be angry with me because I’d have a pageant on a Sunday but then the day before I was kicking a ball. I would come home with a hole in my leg, those were the days, but it started off like that.
“They were shocked [when I fully committed to football]. I think my mom more than anyone else, but they were understanding and were able to see that this girl was taking herself seriously. They saw that I was actually putting in the hours.”
When did Williams start taking football seriously?
The 24-year-old has opened up about how a friend helped her to commit to the beautiful game and she eventually developed.
“There’s isn’t much to say, I’m not gonna lie, about how I came to play for the team I am with now. I started in the Hollywoodbets Super League with Vasco, and before that I was at Spurs,” she continued.
“That is where I actually started playing in goal, before that I used to play in-field with the boys. Then one of my friends, one of the girls in the neighborhood who is now my friend, told me to play for her team or the team that she played for at the time, which was Spurs in Cape Town.
“I joined the team and obviously played as an in-field player. I got a bad injury and then at the time coach Desiree Ellis was, I think, involved in the set-up and she told me to become a goalkeeper because my height was rare, as well as my kicking ability,” Williams concluded.
