100-cap Banyana veteran Nyandeni wins football writers' player of the year award

Banyana Banyana veteran Nompumelelo 'Mpumi' Nyandeni was named the 2022 South African Football Journalists' Association (Safja) women's footballer of the year on Tuesday.

The award is one of the few individual gongs in the women's game in South Africa and was given to Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies and Banyana defender Bambanani Mbane for 2021, with Nyandeni finishing runner-up.

This time the midfielder, who has 149 international caps to her name, scored the overall award after finishing as the 2022 Hollywoodbets Super League top goal-scorer while she was playing for JVW FC before switching to TS Galaxy.

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Nyandeni edged a stiff challenge from fellow nominees Boitumelo Rabale of Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies, University of Western Cape duo Amogelang Motau and Lonathemba Mhlongo, as well as Busisiwe Ndimeni, who left Tshwane University of Technology to join TS Galaxy.

Meanwhile, Banyana head coach Desiree Ellis said 2023 was a big year for women's football ahead of the 2023 Women's FIFA World Cup in Australia and New Zealand in July.

As part of their preparation for the tournament, Banyana will face Serbia away in an international friendly next month.

"We all know this is a very big year for women’s football and when the final 23-player traveling party to the FIFA Women’s World Cup is announced, we want to make sure that when we meet up with the other players that we’ve pushed them to a different level," Ellis told SAFA.net.

"This is all part of our preparation towards the World Cup. And as we said, we start now with what we plan to do at the World Cup and so far the players have responded fantastically in the last camp (in Turkey), and