Tshepo Motlhabankwe (born 17 March 1980) is a former Motswana footballer who played for various

Botswana Premier League The Botswana Premier League, currently known as the BTC Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the highest level football league in Botswana. Organised by the Botswana Football Association, the league was formed in 1978 to replace the pre-inde ...

teams such as

Mochudi Centre Chiefs Mochudi Centre Chiefs Sporting Club are a professional football club based in Gaborone, Botswana, who play in the Botswana first division following their relegation from the Premier League in 2019. Centre Chiefs have won the Botswana Premier Leag ...

and

Township Rollers Township Rollers Football Club is a football club based in Gaborone, Botswana. Rollers are also known as Popa, The Blues or Tse Tala, the official nicknames of the club. The club is also often referred to as Mapalastina, a nickname that develop ...

as well as teams in the

South African Premier Division The South African Premier Division, officially referred to as the DStv Premiership for sponsorship purposes, is the premier men's professional football/soccer league and the highest division in the league system of South Africa, organized sinc ...

. He is also a former

Botswana international The Botswana International is an open badminton tournament held in Gaborone, Botswana. The tournament has been an International Series level, except in 2012 and since 2018 categorized as Future Series level from Badminton World Federation. Pre ...

, having scored 2 goals between his debut in 2003 and retirement in 2013.

Career

Motlhabankwe is originally from a small village of Digawana just a few kilometers from

Lobatse Lobatse is a town in south-eastern Botswana, 70 kilometres south of the capital Gaborone, situated in a valley running north towards Gaborone and close to the border with South Africa. Lobatse has a population of 29,772 as of 2022. The town is an ...

. Despite being one of Botswana's most celebrated footballers, Motlhabankwe did not play youth football and instead played athletics and table tennis at school. In 1997 he switched to amateur football after his father convinced him to join his newly formed team, DACARA FC. After plying his trade in the amateur ranks for several years, Motlhabankwe would make his professional football debut with

Division One The Football League First Division was a division of the Football League in England from 1888 until 2004. It was the top division in the English football league system from the season 1888–89 until 1991–92, a century in which the First ...

side Kanye Southern Pirates. It was during his stint in Southern Pirates that he impressed scouts of

giants Extension Gunners, whom he joined in 2000 and shortly afterwards he received a call-up to the Botswana national team. Motlhabankwe made his debut for the national team in a 4-1 win against Lesotho. He then cemented a regular position in the national team. Motlhabankwe would switch to fellow

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

side

in 2007 and found immediate success, winning three leagues and an FA Cup. He also featured in

Stanley Tshosane Stanley Tshoshane is a Botswana, Batswana association football, football manager (association football), manager. He was appointed to the position of Botswana national football team, Botswana manager in 2008, following a short spell as caretake ...

's squad, commonly known as the "Botswana Dream Team", which qualified for and played in the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations. He parted ways with Chiefs in 2013 and joined Gilport Lions (then known as BMC), whom he left in 2015. Upon the expiration of his contract with Gilport Lions, Motlhabankwe chose not to renew and instead joined

as a free agent. With Rollers, he would win four consecutive league titles and a Mascom Top 8 Cup. He was also part of the history-making squad which qualified for the CAF Champions League group stages in

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 ...

. Towards the end of the 2018-19 season Motlhabankwe announced his retirement to focus on other ventures.

Honours

Club

; Mochudi Centre Chiefs *

:3 :: 2007-08, 2011-12,

2012-13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

:1 :: 2007-08 ; Township Rollers *

:4 :: 2015-16,

2016-17 16-17 is a band from Basel, Switzerland. Their music combines punk rock, hardcore punk, jazz and industrial music. Biography 16-17 was founded in 1983 by Alex Buess, Knut Remond and Markus Kneubühler. When the group played its first con ...

, 2017-18, 2018-19 *

Mascom Top 8 Cup The Mascom Top 8 Cup is a Association football, football cup competition in Botswana. It was created in 2012, and features the top eight finishers from the Botswana Premier League. Since 2013, the winners qualify for the CAF Confederation Cup, as ...

: 1 :: 2017-18

Individual

* FUB Team of the Year: 2017https://www.mmegi.bw/index.phpaid=71458&dir=2017/september/05

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Motlhabankwe, Tshepo 1980 births Living people Botswana footballers Botswana expatriate footballers Extension Gunners FC players Botswana international footballers Mochudi Centre Chiefs SC players 2012 Africa Cup of Nations players Expatriate soccer players in South Africa Botswana expatriate sportspeople in South Africa Maritzburg United F.C. players Association football midfielders