Banyana coach Ellis to decide on future

South Africa coach Desiree Ellis will decide on her future when she returns home next week after the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations finals, preferring to concentrate on Friday’s third-place play-off match first.

Ellis would not be drawn into any discussion on her future amid much speculation that she is planning to step down at the end of the tournament in Morocco, where South Africa lost their crown after being beaten in Tuesday’s semifinal by Nigeria.

“Look, all I'm looking forward to is the game tomorrow,” she told the pre-match press conference ahead of the clash against Ghana in Casablanca for the bronze medal.

“Obviously, when we get back home, I’ll take a little bit of a break and we’ll sit down and then see the way forward from there,” said Ellis.

Ellis has been Banyana coach since 2016 and won the Wafcon in Morocco three years ago, which was the country’s first success in the tournament after decades of coming close. She also took South Africa to their first World Cup in France in 2019 and again to the last finals in Australia and New Zealand.

The 62-year-old Ellis, a former captain of the national team, admitted it would be difficult to lift the team’s spirits after losing 2-1 to the Super Falcons and seeing attacker Gabby Salgado suffer a double leg fracture.

“Obviously, the ambition was to get to the final and go back-to-back, so it’s a bit of disappointment not reaching (the final), but obviously we still have a game to play and we want to end up on a high note.

“We've played against Ghana and it's always difficult to play the same side twice in the tournament. But we'll give it our best shot,” Ellis said.