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African Football Trailblazer Portia Modise Takes Her Place in gsport Hall of Fame
The trophy has stood in her mother’s house for nineteen years. This week, on the eve of the biggest honour of her life, Portia Modise found herself looking at it again.
“I was visiting my mom’s house and I was looking at the trophy,” says Modise. The engraving reads 2007, the year she became the inaugural winner of the gStar Award, the honour that grew into today’s gsport Athlete of the Year. Before the century of goals, before the world knew her name, gsport wrote it down first.
Today that name becomes permanent. Modise has been announced as the 21st inductee into the gsport Hall of Fame, joining the line that Penny Heyns opened in 2006. She was honoured at a special luncheon in Johannesburg today, and will be celebrated again at the 21st gsport Awards on Saturday, 8 August 2026, on the eve of National Women’s Day, as gsport celebrates 20 years of championing South African women in sport. newssport.cv
Her story begins where she has always said it does, and she sets the record straight with characteristic directness. “I don’t come from Meadowlands, I come from White City, Jabavu,” she says. It was there, in a home full of football-mad brothers, that a small girl picked up the ball while the boys trained.
The brother they called uJomo spotted her first. “I saw her juggling the ball outside while we were busy training,” she remembers him saying, and the backyard duels that followed sealed her fate. “Then I started to fall really in love.”
From dim-dim street football with the neighbourhood boys, who protected her rather than turned her away, the gift carried her to Soweto Ladies, where she scored 51 goals in a single season and won a national championship, to the captaincy of the national under-19 side, and to a Banyana Banyana debut at 16 at the 2000 African Women’s Championship on home soil, where she played every match through to the final.
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What followed made history no African player, woman or man, had touched before her: a century of international goals, a milestone she reached in Windhoek in October 2014. “102 goals, I’m a record breaker,” she says, and then delivers the line that has defined her fight all along. “That soccer ball doesn’t have a gender.”
Among the goals was one the world still replays, struck from inside her own half against Sweden at the 2012 London Olympics in Coventry, a plan hatched in training with coach Shakes Mashaba. “I also remember the voice of Shakes. Then I took my chance and it happened again,” she smiles.
Yet ask Modise about her record and she does not reach for glory. She reaches for a torch. “But I can’t own a record for 15 years. For me, it’s crazy,” she says. In her eyes, the longevity of the mark is not a monument to her greatness but a measure of the investment South African football still owes its daughters. “I want these girls to break the record,” she says, because every broken record would tell the story of a nation rich in talent at last given its chance.
The heart of the woman behind the number is unmistakable. “I embrace myself being a woman. I love myself being a woman. It’s just that I’m a special woman,” she says. That self-possession now anchors a new chapter of life, one she describes with quiet pride. “Yes, I am a mother, because I’m raising a daughter.” The girl from White City who once fought for permission to play now models for her own child, and for a generation of young players, what it means to own who you are.
And she is building. “I want to create a foundation that it will be a voice, a foundation that it will be a home, you know, for women footballers,” she says, describing coaching clinics for young girls and a space where legends return to pass on their wisdom. Her ambition for herself is deliberately close to the grass. “I want to feed the team,” she says of her dream to scout talent for the national side, finding the raw diamonds in the townships the way someone once found her. “I want to die in the game. My knowledge is too big for the game.”
For gsport, honouring Modise closes a circle two decades in the making, and she feels the weight of that shared journey. “Someone was watching, someone remembered, someone didn’t forget,” she says of the platform that has tracked her rise since the beginning, recalling co-founder Kass Naidoo’s founding vision. “Kass, I remember when you told me about this dream, and it came alive.” When the call came, she says, “I laughed, because your loyalty is true.”
On Saturday night in Johannesburg she will stand in a room built to celebrate women like her, two days before National Women’s Day, while the current generation of Banyana Banyana stars she helped make possible defend their continental crown in Morocco. The pioneers laid the foundation. The champions built upon it. And the record she set still waits, gleaming, for the young girl somewhere in a township street who will one day take it down, with Modise cheering loudest of all.
African Football Trailblazer Portia Modise Takes Her Place in gsport Hall of Fame
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“These trophies remind us who we are, just because of you, gsport,” she says. From today, one name in that story can never be forgotten. The first name in the line is home for good.
Main Photo Caption: Banyana Banyana legend Portia Modise, the first African footballer to score 100 international goals, has been named the 21st gsport Hall of Fame inductee, honoured at a special luncheon at the Protea Hotel by Marriott Wanderers in Johannesburg on Friday, 7 August 2026, ahead of the 21st gsport Awards on Saturday, 8 August 2026. All Photos: Sachin du Plooy-Naran
Photo 2 Caption: Celebrated for her 102 international goals, Modise now pours her energy into her foundation and grassroots development of women’s football.
Photo 3 Caption: Honoured as a gsport Hall of Famer, the former Banyana Banyana striker wants nothing more than to see her record broken by the next generation.
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African champions Sundowns set to start title defence in Angola
South African club Mamelodi Sundowns are likely to launch their defence of the CAF Champions League in Angola against Wiliete after the qualifying draws were made in Cairo on Thursday.
The two-time African champions received a bye in the first qualifying round of the 2026/27 edition and will face Wiliete of Angola or Foresters from the Seychelles.
Foresters will be debuting in the elite African club competition while Wiliete were first qualifying round losers when they made a first appearance last season.
Wiliete, who are based in coastal city Benguela, have boosted their squad by signing Angolan international forwards Mabululu and Gilberto.
Mabululu has returned to his homeland after two spells with Al Ittihad in Egypt, either side of time at Al Ahly Tripoli of Libya.
Gilberto was rarely used after joining South African club Orlando Pirates and joins Wiliete after playing for Luanda outfit Petro.
Clubs from tiny island nation Seychelles consistently struggle in CAF competitions, often suffering embarrassingly heavy losses, and it would be a shock if they eliminate Wiliete.
Sundowns have been quiet in the close-season transfer market, making no major signing. Their pre-season was also disrupted after the unexplained death of 25-year-old Jayden Adams.
The body of Adams, a midfielder in the South Africa 2026 World Cup squad, was discovered on July 11 at a house in a Cape Town suburb.
– Key figures –
Goalkeeper Ronwen Williams, defender Grant Kekana, midfielder Teboho Mokoena and Colombian forward Brayan Leon will once against be key figures.
Sundowns hope to emulate Al Ahly of Egypt, TP Mazembe of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Enyimba of Nigeria and Esperance of Tunisia and win back-to-back Champions League titles.
Esperance were another club to receive a bye and await debutants Asswehly of Libya of KVZ of Zanzibar in the second round.
The Tunis outfit have rehired Romanian coach Laurențiu Reghecampf, who guided Al Hilal of Sudan to the 2025/26 quarter-finals.
Renaissance Berkane, semi-finals losers to fellow Moroccan club FAR Rabat last season, are another team with a new coach, former Cape Verde tactician Bubista.
Bubista received international acclaim after taking his country to the knockout stage of the 2026 World Cup, where they lost to Argentina after extra time in a last-32 thriller.
Sundowns and Esperance are among nine winners of the Champions League — formerly the African Cup of Champions Clubs — chasing the six-million-dollar first prize.
The others are Zamalek and Pyramids of Egypt, ASEC Mimosas of the Ivory Coast, Club Africain of Tunisia, Mazembe, Mouloudia Alger of Algeria and Pirates.
First round matches are scheduled for September 4-6 and 11-13 and second round matches will be played on October 16-18 and 23-25.
England footballer Toney charged with assault in Soho
LONDON, England, August 7, 2026 – England footballer Ivan Toney has been charged with assault at a nightclub in central London.
The 30-year-old, who plays for Saudi Pro League club Al-Ahli, was charged on 31 July following an incident on Wardour Street in Soho on 6 December.
The former Brentford striker, who started England’s 6-4 win over France in the “bronze final” of the World Cup last month, has been charged with assault causing actual bodily harm and is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 24 September.
A spokesperson for Toney said: “Ivan acknowledges the charge and although he is naturally shocked, he looks forward to being given the opportunity to clear his name in court.”
After starting his career at Northampton Town, the striker had permanent spells at Newcastle, Peterborough and Brentford before moving to Saudi Arabia in 2024.
He was a surprise selection for England’s World Cup squad but apart from the France game, his only other appearance was as a late substitute in the 2-1 semi-final defeat to Argentina.
Sibisi: It’s Always a Game With Consequences
Orlando Pirates captain Nkosinathi Sibisi says the Buccaneers are fully focused on making another strong start to their MTN8 campaign, warning that Durban City will provide a stern test.
The Buccaneers had a highly successful campaign last season, having won the domestic treble, which included the Betway Premiership, MTN8, and the Carling Knockout.
Pirates got their 2026-27 campaign off to a flying start after they secured a 2-0 victory over Milford FC in their opening Betway Premiership fixture.
The Sea Robbers will now turn their attention to the MTN8 when they take on Durban City in the opening round at the Orlando Amstel Arena on Saturday.
Having enjoyed success in the competition in recent years, Sibisi insists his side will not underestimate an opponent capable of causing problems.
“It’s a competition we’ve become familiar with, and one we’ve enjoyed success in,” Sibisi told his club’s official website.
“We’re looking forward to facing Durban City and starting another MTN8 campaign. Whenever we play Durban City, it’s always a game with consequences. We know the quality they have, and we’ve prepared well as a team.
“We saw what they did to us at E’sgodini last season.
“We were cruising, but they almost spoiled the party. That alone tells us the kind of team we’re coming up against, so we have to be switched on from the first minute.”
The post Sibisi: It’s Always a Game With Consequences appeared first on SportsClub.