Andile ‘Sticks’ Dlamini (born 2 September 1992) is a South African

soccer player A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

for

SAFA Women's League The SAFA Women's League, known as Hollywoodbets Super League for sponsorship reasons, is the top flight of women's association football in South Africa. The competition is run by the South African Football Association. The league comprises 16 ( ...

club

Mamelodi Sundowns Mamelodi Sundowns Football Club (simply known as Sundowns) is a South African professional football club based in Mamelodi, Pretoria in the Gauteng province that plays in the Premiership, the first tier of South African football league syste ...

in the hollywoodbets super league and the South Africa women's national team.

Early life

Andile Dlamini was born on the 2nd of September 1992 in

Thembisa Thembisa, formerly Tembisa, is a large township situated to the north of Kempton Park on the East Rand, Gauteng, South Africa. It was established in 1957 when black people were resettled from Alexandra and other areas in Edenvale, Kempton Park, ...

, a township in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

, South Africa.

Club career

Andile Dlamini took up professional football after playing against the South Africa women's national under-20 football team; she was subsequently selected for the team. Nicknamed "Sticks", she previously played for Phomolong Ladies.

Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies

Dlamini joined Sundowns Ladies in 2010. In September 2021, she was part of the team that won the

2021 Cosafa Women's Champions League The 2021 CAF Women's Champions League COSAFA Qualifiers, commonly known as the 2021 COSAFA Women's Champions League, was the inaugural edition of the annual qualification competition for the CAF Women's Champions League organized by COSAFA for its ...

. In November 2021, they won the inaugural

CAF Women's Champions League The CAF Women's Champions League (; ), sometimes abbreviated as ''CAF WCL'', is an annual African women's association football club competition launched on 12 September 2020 and organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF). It is ...

. Dlamini was award goal keeper of the tournament and made it to the team of the tournament. In August 2022, the team were runner's up for the 2022 Cosafa Women's Champions League. In November 2022, they were runner's up for the

2022 CAF Women's Champions League The 2022 CAF Women's Champions League was the 2nd edition of the annual African women's association football football team, club tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) held in Morocco from 30 October to 13 November 20 ...

. In September 2023, they won the 2023 Cosafa Women's Champions League with Dlamini winning goal keeper of the tournament. In November 2023, they won the 2023 CAF Women's Champions league for the second time with Dlamini winning goal keeper of the tournament and making it into the team of the tournament.

International career

She made her first appearance for the

South Africa women's national football team The South Africa women's national football team represents South Africa in women's international soccer and is run by the South African Football Association, the governing body for Soccer in South Africa. Nicknamed Banyana Banyana (The Girls i ...

against

Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...

in 2011. Dlamini has routinely been the reserve goalkeeper for the team, with Thokozile Mndaweni and Roxanne Barker taking the first time spots. This has meant that although Dlamini has been named to the squads of both the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, United Kingdom, and the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

, Brazil, she did not play any time at all during either tournaments. She was disappointed when South Africa were eliminated from the 2015

All Africa Games The African Games, formally known as the All-Africa Games or the Pan African Games, are a continental multi-sport event held every four years, organized by the African Union with the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa and the ...

in the first round through a drawing after each team in the group stage drew all their games. Following the arrival of coach Desiree Ellis, it was suggested that Dlamini could have a better chance of becoming the first choice goalkeeper, especially after Barker was released later than expected for friendlies and the

2016 Africa Women Cup of Nations The 2016 Women's Africa Cup of Nations was the 12th edition of the biennial African women's association football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football that was held in Cameroon. Originally scheduled to be held between 8 an ...

tournament.

Personal life

Dlamini is a

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

, and reads the

bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

to prepare for football matches.

Honours

Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies *

: 2020,

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

; runner-up:

South Africa *

Women's Africa Cup of Nations The Women's Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON), known for sponsorship purposes as the TotalEnergies Women's Africa Cup of Nations and formerly the African Women's Championship, is a biennial international women's football tournament organized by ...

, runner-up:

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

Individual *

Team of the Tournament:

Best Goalkeeper:

IFFHS The International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) is an organisation that chronicles the history and records of association football. It was founded in 1984 by Alfredo Pöge in Leipzig. The IFFHS was based in Abu Dhabi for so ...

CAF Women's Team of The Year: 2022 * Gauteng Sports Personality of the Year: 2022 * Gauteng Women in Sports Sportswoman of the Year: 2022 * Tshwane Sports Women of the Year: 2022 * Momentum Athlete of the Year: 2023 * Feather Awards Sports Personality of the Year: 2023 *

Team of the Tournament:

* Women's Africa XI:

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dlamini, Andile 1992 births Living people People from Tembisa Soccer players from Gauteng South African women's soccer players Women's association football goalkeepers South Africa women's international soccer players Olympic soccer players for South Africa Footballers at the 2016 Summer Olympics 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup players South African Christians Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies F.C. players 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup players South African lesbian sportswomen South African LGBTQ footballers 21st-century South African sportswomen SAFA Women's League players