Before she regaled fans with her shot-stopping skills or made the world stop and wonder by scoring free kicks from near the centre circle, Jessica Williams aspired to become South Africa’s next top model.
Like many young girls seeking glory on the catwalk, Williams followed all the right steps. She got dolled up, slipped into glamorous outfits and walked the catwalk with purpose, her eyes fixed on a world of lights, beauty and applause.
As her teenage years progressed, a life on the catwalk seemed on the cards for her. That was before she caught the football bug. The bite of the football bug is a powerful thing. It is a bite whose force has been felt from the slums of Rio de Janeiro to the sprawling estates of London, from the arrondissements of Paris to the Cape Flats.
She may not remember the exact time and date when the bug sank its teeth into her, but she has a vivid recollection of how it all began.
“Football was not my main interest at first,” she reveals. “I took part in pageants and modelling when I was younger.”
While immersed in the world of beauty and modelling, however, Williams was never one to shy away from a kick-about with the boys. During those informal sessions, played in the carefree manner familiar to children everywhere, her love for the beautiful game slowly began to blossom.
WHEN DID JESSICA WILLIAMS START PLAYING FOOTBALL
“I started playing football at school because I grew up around boys and played with them at break times. I later joined a team and initially played as an outfield player. I only became a goalkeeper in 2017, when I was 17. I played in midfield, which probably explains why I am so comfortable with the ball at my feet.”
As she grew older, she began to drift away from the boys she had come to recognise almost as brothers. But as they gradually faded from her everyday life, they left her with an enduring gift. They left her with a love of football. It was a gift that would usher in the first transformation of her young life.
“As I got older, it became harder to keep playing with boys. One of the girls I knew invited me to join a women’s team called Spurs in Cape Town because they needed someone who could play like me. I joined the team as an outfield player and received plenty of game time before suffering a serious injury,” she says.
Williams had changed from a girl who loved beauty pageants and their accompanying glamour into one who coveted the football field, trading the flash of cameras for the thud of boots on a football.
Yet, even as her passion for the game grew, injuries were already threatening her fledgling football ambitions. That cruel twist of fate would, once again, force her to reinvent herself.
DESIREE ELLIS ENCOURAGED HER TO TRY GOALKEEPING
“Coach Des, who was connected to the club at the time, encouraged me to try goalkeeping because of my height and kicking ability,” she says. “She also explained that South Africa needed more goalkeepers. Initially, I resisted because I could dribble, shoot and score. Eventually, I agreed and was sent to the Farouk Abrahams Goalkeeper Academy, where my love for goalkeeping began. I trained with boys and girls of different ages, backgrounds and ethnicities, and we became a family.”
Sometimes, football has a curious way of closing one door only to reveal another, and for Williams, the goalposts became the gateway to a completely different career.
The girl who had once dreamed of conquering the ramp was now learning to command the 18-yard area. Even as a relative newcomer, she was learning quickly.
“Within three or four months of becoming a goalkeeper, I attended trials and received a call-up to the Under-20 national team. Everything happened very quickly. I was not as accomplished then as I am now, as goalkeepers mature with time and experience, but the passion was already there.”
The Cape Town-born goalie’s transformation was gathering pace. For someone who had only recently moved from the outfield to the penalty area, she was already knocking on the door of international football. More importantly, another dream was beginning to take shape.
“That was also when I began dreaming of playing abroad and of becoming the first South African female goalkeeper to secure an endorsement for gloves or another product.”
However, there was one small problem. She did not realise that the particular piece of history she wanted to write had already been written.
HOPE SOLO’S INSPIRATION
“I’m actually the second South African female goalkeeper to be signed by an overseas club. Roxanne Barker was the first, joining a Dutch club in 2016. She has since retired, so I believe I am currently the only active South African female goalkeeper playing abroad.”
Growing up in an era before smartphones were permanently glued to children’s hands, Williams simply did not have access to the information that might have corrected her ambitions.
“I did not initially have a football role model because I did not watch much football while growing up. We belonged to a different generation. We did not have phones, tablets or fancy televisions. We would sit by the window and watch other children playing outside.”
Eventually, when she did find a goalkeeper to admire, she found one of the biggest names in women’s football.
“When I eventually started watching football, Hope Solo became my role model. She played for the United States women’s national team, and I watched many of her videos. I would use my mother’s phone to watch her on YouTube, finish the data, and then get into trouble.”
While Williams was busy sharpening her craft between the sticks, her most memorable football moment would not come from goalkeeping. When it came, it would come from the unlikeliest of scenarios. At the 2024 COSAFA tournament, the world got a glimpse of the peculiar gift that had once made her reluctant to become a goalkeeper.
THE VIRAL COSAFA GOAL
“I had been doing the same things in league matches for Badgers, including scoring goals from around the halfway line, but those moments were not always noticed,” she says. With the cameras firmly on her at Southern Africa’s biggest tournament, she scored a wonder goal that instantly made her a darling of football fans worldwide.
“I was also surrounded by people who believed in me. Mamello Makhabane encouraged me to take the set-piece because she had seen me do it in training. Romaney [Pinnock] had also watched me practise it repeatedly on the training ground. The ability was there long before COSAFA. The difference was that people could finally see it. They saw that I could strike the ball and that I was brave enough to take risks.”
While that goal was an undoubted viral moment, shared by thousands on social media around the globe, for Williams it opened a new window of opportunity.
“The tournament changed my life for the better. I knew I was a good player, but seeing people from across the world recognise my ability gave me greater belief. Even now, people still talk about that free-kick.”
Among those watching was Romaney Pinnock, the South African football administrator and coach who now heads women’s football at Danish giants FC Copenhagen. Pinnock had known ‘Jess’ for several years through Badgers Football Academy in Cape Town, where ‘Jess’ had played in the Sasol League and coached the Under-16 team. Between seasons, while playing for Hollywoodbets Super League clubs, Williams would return to the academy for extra training.
WHEN FC COPENHAGEN NEEDED A GOALKEEPER…
“She has also been a great role model for many of our girls,” Pinnock says. When FC Copenhagen needed another goalkeeper, her name was not difficult to recommend.
“The opportunity arose when we needed another goalkeeper. Jess was an obvious choice, so we brought her here for a trial. She spent two and a half weeks training with the team, giving the goalkeeper coach and the rest of the technical team time to assess her ability and character. She performed exceptionally well, and the club decided to sign her,” Pinnock says.
For the Banyana shot-stopper, the move marks another transformation: from a pageant hopeful to an outfield player, from an injured footballer to a goalkeeper, and from an ambitious teenager dreaming of foreign shores to a professional player actually standing on those shores. Perhaps most remarkably, she has achieved it after taking a detour that could easily have ended her football journey.
“I arrived after a period in which I had not been playing regularly. I had shifted my focus towards coaching, continued training, and taken time to look after my mental health.”
“When I arrived here, I had to switch on quickly. I focused on the simple drills, applying the correct techniques and doing the basics properly while staying true to myself. I did not dim my light or compare myself with anyone else.”
The adjustment was not merely footballing. In Denmark, she found herself adjusting to the rhythms of a new life.
WILLIAMS REALISING SHE IS NOT MERELY A GOALKEEPER
“The training structure was different from what I was accustomed to. Here, you may have gym work followed by football training, so I had to adjust and learn to manage my energy throughout the day. After about a week and a half, I began to believe I would stay. I was reminded to remain humble, but I knew I had done enough to show my quality.”
Now, as she settles into Danish football, Williams is realising she is not merely a new goalkeeper in a foreign league. She is also, in a sense, an ambassador for a women’s game that many in Denmark know little about.
“People in Denmark do not know much about the South African women’s game. I have been asked many questions about the standard of our league and what football is like in the country. That again highlights the importance of better coverage, as people cannot know what they do not see. I am settling in well.”
On the field, however, there is little time to dwell on the cold. The game, she says, is fast, with quality professionals from across the globe making every game a competitive spectacle. Her journey has also sparked her teammates’ curiosity about the South Africa that exists beyond the postcard images.
For someone naturally inclined towards solitude, such as Williams, the Danish way of life has its advantages.
“People here also tend to keep to themselves, which suits me, as I am naturally introverted.”
But while she may be reserved away from the pitch, Jess has no intention of being a wallflower at the posts.
“I want to push my teammates to make better saves and challenge the attacking players to find different ways to score,” she vows.
YEARNING FOR ANOTHER BANYANA CALL-UP
Naturally, trophies and league-table success remain part of the picture. She says that opportunity is particularly significant for a player coming from a football environment with fewer resources. Now that her dream is within her grasp, she has no intention of letting it slip.
While she has crossed the Atlantic in pursuit of her own dream, the former youth international hopes her journey will make the path easier for those who follow.
After a life and career that have seen her change form several times, there is one final transformation still underway. She is no longer the girl standing in front of a mirror, imagining herself on a catwalk. She is now a 26-year-old goalkeeper, standing between the sticks in Denmark, with the world watching.
Yet despite all the changes, one thing has remained constant: the dreamer.
“I feel great and am extremely grateful. I believe this is only the beginning for South African football, not just for me.”
Even the national team door, once closed by her own decision to step away, has not been locked forever.
“Stepping away from international football was a difficult decision. I stopped playing at club level and took a break from the national team to find myself again. If another national team call-up comes, I will accept it with pride.”
WALKING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF SIBUSISO ZUMA
In Copenhagen, Williams is aware that she walks in the footsteps of Sibusiso Zuma, a man regarded as a god in the Danish capital. With a statue outside the club’s stadium, Zuma casts a long shadow in Copenhagen, one that South Africans, in particular, might find it difficult to escape. Despite this, Williams is eager to carve out her own path in Denmark.
“Thapelo [Maseko] probably carries similar expectations because of Sibusiso Zuma’s legacy. Fortunately, I am a goalkeeper, so I will most likely be trying to save those kinds of shots. I do not feel much pressure. Zuma was an outstanding player who left a lasting impression, and the players still speak about him, but I do not feel burdened by expectations to emulate what he achieved.”
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