Goal-den oldies are on top of the world

Mbele Nonhlanhla laced up her silver soccer boots as her coach shouted encouragement to players with creaky knees, stiff backs and labored breathing in a dressing room in South Africa's far north.

At 63, wearing number 10 and sporting brown-dyed hair, the grandmother of seven was far from your typical soccer player when she stepped onto the field for her first international tournament.

"I feel like a superstar," Nonhlanhla grinned, revealing a missing tooth. "They call me the goal machine."

Her team, Vuka Soweto, hails from the renowned Johannesburg township of the same name.

It had joined more than a dozen others from across Africa and beyond to compete at the Grannies International Football Tournament in South Africa's northern province of Limpopo in April.

The four-day "Grannies World Cup" was held in a stadium with sweeping mountain views.

The 30-minute games were played in two halves at a slow, but purposeful pace, between teams from as far afield as the United States, France and Togo.

"It is all about active ageing. Whether we win or lose, it is all about coming here and staying fit," said 62-year-old South African Devika Ramesar, a mother of two and grandmother of five.

Until the week of the tournament, the Liverpool fan had never stepped onto a soccer pitch.

Kenyan striker Edna Cheruiyot only had two months to learn the "long list" of the game's laws before her debut on April 4, when she scored her only goal.

She took selfies to remember her first ever trip abroad and to send to her grandchildren.

Unfair pressure

"I feel nimble. This is the lightest I have been since my first child in 1987," Cheruiyot said, adjusting the blue headwrap covering her graying hair.

At 52, she is a youngster within her team, the oldest player of which — Elizabeth Talaa — is 87.

The idea for the tournament arose in 2007 as a way to improve the health of local women, said founder Rebecca Ntsanwisi, 57, who is fondly called Mama Beka.

It came out of her sense of personal challenge following a cancer diagnosis that once bound her to a wheelchair.

"The older women need to come together and enjoy. We are neglected," she told reporters outside the home where she lives with her ageing parents.

She hopes to host the next tournament in Kenya in 2027.

In South Africa alone, almost 40 percent of children live in households headed by their grandparents, according to government statistics.

This is mainly attributed to poverty, cultural traditions and urban migration.

But grandmothers should not be saddled with the responsibility of raising their grandchildren, Ntsanwisi said.

"This is our time to enjoy and relax," she said.

"I will die knowing that I did something."

Chris Matson, 67, took the advice to heart, and traveled from the US determined to "enjoy every second of the tournament".

"I did not play when I was little, so to do it now is wonderful," said the bubbly goalkeeper for the winning American New England Breakers team, who also took the golden glove.

"I have something precious to take home," she told reporters, cradling her first ever trophy.

Rolling back the years

The team doctors, however, earned their keep.

The aches and pains of the elderly players needed constant checking, South African team medic Diana Mawila said.

Some members of her Vakhegula Vakhegula team had to be monitored for high blood pressure before every game.

Vakhegula Vakhegula means "grandmothers grandmothers" in the local Tsonga language, and is a nod to the national men's team, Bafana Bafana or "boys boys".

But, the team disagreed with the medic's assessment and burst into heartfelt laughter.

"We are fit!" captain Thelma Ngobeni said, balancing a packet of maize flour that players received after the games on her head.

"It is not about winning or losing. All that matters is that we showed up, had fun and did our best," she said.

Nonhlanhla's goal was more ambitious. A dream of making it big in soccer was within reach, she said.

"It's never too late to achieve your childhood dreams.

"I don't see anything stopping me," she added, walking out of the tunnel to face France.

In a scene mirroring professional soccer, the vuvuzela-blowing crowd erupted into wild applause as the teams entered the stadium hand-in-hand with young mascots, and, again after the national anthems.

"I'm halfway there, right?" Nonhlanhla smiled.

AFP