26 May 2019 – Banyana Banyana have collected yet another award as they were named the Team of the Year in the fourth edition of the African Union Sports Council Region 5 Regional Annual Sport Awards (RASA) 2019.
This is their third within two years – they were crowned CAF Team of the Year in 2017, and followed it up with the National Team of the Year award in 2018 in the South African Sports Awards.
The RASA gala took place on Saturday night (25 May 2019) in Windhoek, Namibia under the theme “Celebrating Excellence, Inspiring Innovation.”
Banyana Banyana went head to head against the Botswana 4 x 400 meters Men Relay team and the Netball team of Malawi.
- Eligibility for the RASA awards is based on the country hosting its own national awards
- Winners from the national awards automatically qualify to be in the long list of nominees for the RASA, from which the top three are selected and the winner is announced during the RASA gala night.
The awards are made up of 12 categories to recognise athletes, coaches, member countries, Regional Confederations, journalists and teams that have produced outstanding performances in sport at regional and international level. Winners of ten of these categories are selected through a voting process with the Confederation of the year and country of the year being selected through an adjudication panel.
Banyana Banyana are currently in Rouen, France in the final leg of their 2019 FIFA World Cup preparations and will face Norway in an international friendly match on Sunday, 2 June in Amiens, before moving to Le Havre to get ready for the their first of the World Cup against Spain on 8 June at Stade Oceane.
Here is what Banyana Banyana head coach Desiree Ellis had to say after hearing of the award.