Journey that started as her township team’s only white girl has taken in a World Cup, coming out as gay and launching a club
Janine van Wyk was never afraid to be different. As a child she was desperate to play football, even though none of the girls she knew wanted to join her. As a teenager keen to turn competitive, she headed out of her comfort zone in white suburbia to a black township (an area demarcated by the apartheid government for black South Africans to live in) because it was her only option, even though no one else was doing it.
Now 36, Van Wyk has captained South Africa for a decade and is Africa’s second-highest-capped footballer, male or female. In a country where racial tensions are never far from the surface, she is a symbol of how bridges can be built.
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