Desiree Ellis (born 14 March 1963) is a South African

soccer manager In association football, the manager is the person who runs a football club or a national team. They have wide-ranging responsibilities, including selecting the team, choosing the tactics, recruiting and transferring players, negotiating pl ...

and former

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who ...

. She currently coaches the South Africa women's national team. She is a founding member of the ''Banyana Banyana'' and the second captain of the national team. She was awarded Confederation of African Football Women's Coach of the Year in 2018 after her team finished second place in the African Women Cup of Nations and qualifying for the Women's World Cup for the first time. During her club career she played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for Spurs Ladies among other teams.She is honored to have won the African Women Cup of Nations in 2022 after South Africa's long run for a win in the finals

Early life

Ellis grew up in Salt River in the 1970s. Stayed at her Grandmother's place after school as both her parents, father Ernest, (d. 1989) and mother Natalie worked during the day. There were no women's clubs back then and she played soccer with boys and her cousins. After school she'd drop her school bag, change her clothes and run outside to her waiting teammates. Her father often threatened to send her to school barefoot because she'd ruin her shoes while playing soccer.

Club career

Ellis eventually found another women's club,(Athlone Celtic was the first club she played for) Spurs Ladies while she still worked at a butchery in

Lansdowne Lansdowne or Lansdown may refer to: People * Lansdown Guilding (1797–1831), Saint Vincent and the Grenadines naturalist and engraver *Fenwick Lansdowne (1937–2008), Canadian wildlife artist * George Granville, 1st Baron Lansdowne (1666–1735) ...

mixing spices. She once left town with the club over a weekend, promising her employers that she'd return in time for work but the vehicle the team was travelling in broke down on the way home, making her fail to arrive on time. Consequently, Ellis got fired.

Outside football

Ellis had many administration occupations during her playing career. She was the vice-president of Western Province Women's Football Association from 1994 to 1995 and later the PRO of the association from 1996 to 1997. She worked as a Chief Librarian at a photo agency, Touchline in 2001.

International career

Ellis went for trials for the national team and passed and would feature in the team's first international match. She debuted against Swaziland at the age of 30 on 30 May 1993 in a 14–0 win. Ellis scored a hat-trick, as did two other players. During the 1995 World Cup qualifiers, South Africa beat

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and ...

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are t ...

and

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on aggregate, 10–1, 11–5 and 6–4 but lost to

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

11–2. When

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

hosted the

2000 African Women's Championship The 2000 African Women's Championship was the 4th edition of the biennial African international women's association football tournament organized by CAF and the second to be hosted by a country for the women's national teams of Africa. It was ...

, she captained the side to a runner-up finish. In 2000, Ellis was nominated alongside Mercy Akide and Florence Omagbemi for African Woman Footballer of the Year. She was recognized for her services to soccer the same year when she received a Silver Presidential Sports Award. She also led Banyana Banyana to the 2002 COSAFA Cup victory. In her 32 caps for South Africa she won 23 matches, lost seven and drew two. She retired from soccer in April 2002 at the age of 38.

Post retirement career

Ellis can be seen on TV as a soccer commentator and a pundit on local television station e-TV. She was an ambassador for the

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. She also worked at Gallo Images as a picture editor.

Coaching career

Ellis was appointed interim manager of the

South Africa women's national football team The South Africa women's national soccer team, nicknamed ''Banyana Banyana'' (The Girls), is the national team of South Africa and is controlled by the South African Football Association. Their first official match was held on 30 May 1993 agai ...

in 2016 after Vera Pauw resigned following the team's group stage exit at the 2016 Olympics. Ellis was appointed head coach in February 2018 and coached the team, then ranked 50th in the world, to a second-place finish in the

Africa Women Cup of Nations The Women's Africa Cup of Nations, also called the TotalEnergies Women's Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons and abbreviated to WAFCON, is an international women's football competition held every two years and sanctioned by the Conf ...

, losing to 11-time champions Nigeria on penalty kicks in the final; nonetheless, by finishing second, South Africa qualified to its first-ever FIFA Women's World Cup in

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

. She was awarded Confederation of African Football Women's Coach of the Year in 2018, 2019 and 2022. Ellis coached Banyana Banyana to their maiden Africa Cup of Nations victory in

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...

in 2022.

Honours

Player

South Africa * COSAFA Women's Championship: 2002 *

Women's Africa Cup of Nations The Women's Africa Cup of Nations, also called the TotalEnergies Women's Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons and abbreviated to WAFCON, is an international women's football competition held every two years and sanctioned by the Confe ...

runners-up:

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

Individual *Mobil Achievement Award by WP Sportswriters: 1980 *SAFA Women's Inter-provincials: 1986, 1989, 1992 *Foschini Cape Woman Football Player of the Year: 1989, 1993 *WP Player of the Year: 1983, 1993 *Sanlam Sports Star of the Month (November): 2000 *SAFA Special Recognition Gold Award: 2001 * Presidential Sports Silver Award: 2001 *Mandisa Shiceka Role Model Award by ANC Youth League: 2001

Manager

South Africa * COSAFA Women's Championship:

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the Unit ...

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeypo ...

, runners-up:

* Aisha Buhari Cup: 2021 Individual * Sports Minster's Excellence Award: 2017 * Confederation of African Football Women's Coach of the Year: 2018, 2019, 2022

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ellis, Desiree Living people 1963 births Women's association football midfielders South African women's soccer players South Africa women's international soccer players South African expatriate soccer players South Africa women's national soccer team managers Soccer players from Cape Town 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup managers South African soccer managers Female association football managers