South Africa’s most capped player, defender Janine van Wyk, is settling in nice at her new home in Europe.
The founder and former player of JVW FC, which campaigns in the Hollywoodbets Super League, is now on the books of Ergotelis WFC, in top flight women’s football league in Greece.
Van Wyk has also played in the USA, Denmark and Scotland.
Centrecircle.online spoke to her from her new base in Greece.
Congratulations on your move, how has your stay been so far in Greece? How was the welcome?
Thank you, my stay in Greece has been an enjoyable one so far. I received a warm welcome from everyone at the club and it hasn’t taken me long to fit in.
The language appears to be difficult, how are you coping?
The language is pretty hard to understand but I’m slowly learning although everyone is able to communicate a little in the English language which is nice, but the translations on and off the football pitch still occur.
Did you know about the club before you joined them?
No, I had no clue about the Greek League until I was approached by the club during the TotalEnergies Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) in July in Egypt.
How did the move come about?
The communication started during the WAFCON between myself and the club, and their thoughts around the move to join the Greek League sounded like they were looking to strengthen the league by bringing in Internationals and using an experienced player to come on board to start the process and I am always up to change the perspective of the women’s game while I’m able to.
What jersey number did you get? 5 again?
Of course, that was part of the deal ha-ha!
When does the league start – and how do you find the change from Hollywoodbets to the Greek upper tier football?
The League in Greece only starts towards the end of October and we have played a couple of friendlies now and it’s been quite competitive and good from what I have seen so far from the other teams, as well as the team I represent. It’s going to be an exciting season.
Been a part player in the Banyana Banyana setup in recent times, will this move help change that?
I’m not sure if anything will change, but all I can do is continue to work hard and play as many games as possible to keep my form and hopefully remain in the Banyana Banyana setup.
Banyana Banyana recently lost two matches against Brazil – any lessons from those games as they were to prepare for the World Cup?
It’s always going to be a difficult task to overcome such powerhouses in women’s football. The only lessons we can learn is rectify what it is that has been identified as our weaknesses. We obviously have quality players within the squad, but now it’s sharpening up and becoming better on and off the ball. During these games we made silly errors which cost us many goals, so we have to be better at limiting our mistakes against these top teams, otherwise we will get punished over and over again.
What needs to be done for the team to be ready for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand?
A lot of preparation and building on a strong core group of players. It’s about using the players that will be able to handle being thrown in a pressure cooker and still be able to perform and get results. Players that have experience playing at the biggest stage and not ones that would shut down when it’s time to step up against the world’s best teams. A lot of work has to be put in ahead of this next world cup and not only physical fitness but being tactically disciplined in all aspects on the field which I feel we still have some way to go in order to compete against these teams.
By Matlhomola Morake
