Letago Madiba


Letago Madiba is a South African women's football forward, who plays for ALG Spor in the Turkish Women's First Football League with jersey number 9. She was a member of the South Africa women's national team.

Private life

Letago Madiba was born at Arthur's Seat of Bushbuckridge town in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa on 15 July 1991. She grew up in a family with four elder brothers.
She graduated from Lekete High School in Arthur's Seat, Bushbuckridge. She holds a BTech degree in Sport and Exercise science from Tshwane University of Technology. She is working on her Master's degree in Organisational leadership.

Playing career

Madiba started playing football already at the age of five in the streets of Arthur's Seat. Her brother Karabo, who would be a footballer, tought her the basics and skills. From a young age, she played with boys in the community, and became the only female football player in school.

Club

She played for the South African Tshwane University of Technology's team TUT Ladies in the SAFA Sasol Women's League. In 2018, she decided to retire from football to seek a permanent employment. Her team coach Tebogo Mokae convinced her to finish at least the season. She capped in 54 matches in the seasons of 2016–17 and 2017–18, and scored a total of 82 goals. In addition, she netted 31 goals in various tournaments for the university team. Overall, she appeared in 75 games in the Sasol League, and scored a total of 103 goals. She enjoyed the champion title with her team at the end of the 2017–18 Sasol League. She won also the University Sports South Africa Football National Club Championship and the ABSA Women’s Championship. In her early career, she played in defender position.
In February 2019, she got a chance to go to Spain, where she exercised one month with two clubs. That returned her confidence.
The assistant coach of TUT Ladies, Nadia Kroll, offered her to play in Belarus. Madiba had to decide within three days as the Belarusian club was in preparation for a major European tournament. Her childhood dream of playing overseas came through when she took that chance. In July 2019, she moved to Belarus, and joined ZFK Minsk two weeks before their participation at the 2019–20 UEFA Women's Champions League qualifying round. She played in two of the three qualification matches, and scored one goal.
Arranged by her manager Kroll, she went to Turkey end October 2019, and signed a contract for forward position with ALG Spor, a club in Gaziantep, which were promoted to the Women's First League at the end of the 2017–18 season. She scored eleven goals in 14 matches of the 2019-20 Turkish Women's First Football League season. The 2019-20 league season was discontinued due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey. However, her team was entitled to represent Turkey at the 2020–21 UEFA Women's Champions League as the top-ranking team when the league was stopped.

International

In April 2014, Madiba was admitted to the South Africa women's national team, nicknamed "Banyana Banyana", to play in a friendly match against Zimbabwe, During a national team camp just before the 2014 African Women's Championship, she was injured by tearing of anterior cruciate ligament, lateral collateral ligament of ankle joint and meniscus. She underwent two surgeries, and had to stay out of action for 14 months.
She was called up to the national team for the 2017 COSAFA Women's Championship - Group C matches. She played only a handful matches.