Twinning in Talent: The Anomaly Dominating the Women's National Team

Ever heard of the saying “once in a blue moon”? Well it implies a rare occurrence that is seldom seen. In the realm of women's football, where prowess meets poise and skill intertwines with grace, a phenomenon of rare splendor has emerged, captivating the hearts of fans in South Africa. Meet the remarkable twins, Thubelihle and Sphumelele Shamase, and their equally exceptional counterparts, Noxolo and Sinoxolo Cesane, a quartet of prodigious talent rewriting the script of the beautiful game. In a landscape where individual brilliance often takes center stage, the presence of not one, but two sets of twins within the same national team, in the same generation, is a marvel as extraordinary as finding the needle in the hay stack.

Born Emphangeni in the KwaZulu-Natal Province, the Shamase twins later moved to Waterloo where they were raised by their grandmother, Gogo Mbatha. With an absent father, and a mother who passed away just a month after their birth, Thube and Sphume as they are fondly known, were raised in a all female household alongside their older sister. At the tender age of seven years, if the sisters were not kicking a ball with boys outside, they were using grandma’s dishes for target practice much to her dismay. Their intriguing presence caught the eye of a local Sasol League team Sunflower FC whilst playing for a boys team, where they were introduced to women’s football for the first time.

As destiny would have it, the twins were scouted at the KZN Provisional tournament, and asked to join the High Performance Centre (HPC) in Pretoria. However, after losing their mother a few weeks after the twins birth, their grandma couldn’t fathom being separated from them “Gogo said no, we can’t go lol.” Fate on the other hand had other ideas. In 2017 the wingers received their first U-17 national team call-up after successful trials that saw their selection for the South African women’s U-17 national team, that was to take part in FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup Qualifiers.

The sisters helped guide the team to the 2018 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup in Uruguay where they had to balance football and educational demands from their High school Waterloo Secondary School. Inseparable from birth, and intertwined by their passion, in 2022 fate intervened in a way neither one could have foreseen. The winds of change blew in a bittersweet taste of separation, following Thube’s inclusion of the senior women's national team at the 2022 Women's Africa Cup of Nations, where they won their first continental title in 2022. It was the first time the Shamase twins were ever separated for that long.

“I missed her a lot, we don’t like being separated because we’re comfortable playing together.”

Since then Thube represented Banyana Banyana at the 2023 Cosafa Women's Championship where she won the silver boot scoring 5 goals. Later in the year, she was added to the national team for the 2024 Women's Africa Cup of nations qualifier and was nominated for the CAF Young Player of the Year (Women).

Her sister on the other hand, was last season's Hollywoodbets Super League top goal scorer with 22 goals. She was included in the senior national team at the 2022 COSAFA Women's Championship were they finished as runners-up to Zambia, with Shamase scoring 2 goals in the tournament, as well as in the 2023 edition. Coach Desiree Ellis later named her for the 2024 Women's Africa Cup of nations qualifier against Burkina Faso.

Recently, their dream of playing overseas materialised after the pair became the latest exports from Banyana Banyana, who landed their first professional contract at the same club, FC Gintra in Lithuania. Although anomalies seem to follow this duo, Thube left for Europe first in March, whilst her twin had to wait longer in SA due to delayed visa issues, however she’s set to be reunited with her other half soon.

In their 2nd year at the University of Johannesburg, where they also played in the Hollywoodbets Super League, the twins were both studying Transportation Management at the University of Johannesburg and made a collective decision to drop out this year and follow their dreams of professional football.

Compared to the Shamase twins calm domineer and soft spoken nature, the Cesane sisters are polar opposites from Gugulethu township in Cape Town. Their vibrant personalities and outspoken nature makes an interesting combination once assembled in the national team camp. Much like the other half of the twin sets, Noxolo and Sinoxolo were raised by their grandmother too. They complicated family dynamic with their parents saw them living in a two bedroom house surrounded by a lively household of siblings and cousins. “We had a very big family. There was about sixteen of us in the house, and we used to sleep on the floor on a mattress”

The sisters were bitten by the football bug at the tender age of five years, thanks to their brothers influence. They were eventually invite to join the boys team City Lads around the age of ten, because it was the closest team in proximity to their house “We played football barefoot because we only had church shoes and school shoes at the time”

Cape Town Roses was the best team in the community at the time, and went on to recruit the girls to play for their first girls team. Seeing the raw potential, teacher Xolile Madikane by day turned coach by night, transferred the twins to his school Lwazi Primary School for Grade 7, where he could not only impart life skills to them, but additional football training in the open field near the school. They went on to attend Fezeka High School, before being spotted by the SA U -20 national team coach Maud Khumalo at the Sasol league play-offs. “Our family didn’t want us to study in white or coloured schools because they were too far away from home. Fearing for our lives we could only go to nearby schools within walking distance.”

Khumalo later invited them to the HPC, where they were selected for the U-17 national team, followed by the U-20. After only two years at the TuksSport High school Sinoxolo and Noxolo were expelled due to misconduct and thus returning to Cape Town to their former school to complete their high school. Having broken into the junior national teams, and relocating to another province for two years, gave the twins a sense of independence, individual identity and a shot at redemption. “I was more focused on football, and Sino was more focused on her education."

Sino had a short stint at the University of the Western Cape after she received a scholarship to East Tennessee State University (ETSU). In her freshman year she earned SoCon All -Freshman Team selection. In 2021, Sino started in all 16 matches and started 13 matches in the 2022 season. For her final season with ETSU, in August the attacking midfielder received Offensive Player of the Week and scored 3 goals in 2 matches for the Bucs. She also spent three seasons at Chattanooga Lady Red Wolves who play in the USL League one, appearing in 12 matches for the team during the 2023 season, picking up five goals and one assist in team wins against SC United Bantams, Southern Soccer Academy, and Birmingham Legion WFC. The skilful player was also a part of the WPSL Southeastern Conference squad that took home the championship in 2021.

All her hardwork and experience finally paid off in 2023, when she received her first senior national team call up, to represent Banyana Banyana in the two friendly matches against the United States Women’s National Team in Cincinnati and Chicago. She played along her sister for the first time since the U-20 national team days. To date, Cesane calls Mexico her home, after bagging a contract for Liga MX Femenil side Mazatlán Femenil. A few weeks after her arrival, she scored a brace in the 2-1 win over Cruz Azul which ended the club's 31-match winless run in the league.
 

For Nox her senior team call up arrived much earlier than her sisters. In 2019 coach Desiree Ellis included her in the squad for the COSAFA Women’s Championship. Her debut earned her a regular spot in the team, where she went on to represent SA at the 2022 Women's Africa Cup of Nations, where she contributed two assists to help Banyana to be crowned the African champions for the first time ever. She also formed an integral part in the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup in Australia & New Zealand where the team made history by progressing to the last 16.

Cesane’s outstanding performance at the WAFCON drew interest from French club Stade de Reims where she signed a one year contract. Seeking more game time, she found a new home in February 2023 with Mexican side Tigres. Her stay was short lived and she returned to her roots at UWC. She’s hoping to evolve more as a player and make an impact each day, although she hopes to play more in the midfield position. “I don't like playing as a winger and the coach likes playing me on the sides. I love being on the ball, and for the skill I have I want to play in the midfield so I'm not limited."