I think every female footballer can relate to a woman working in a male-dominated area and championing it. We need to make sure that we support each other.

It is very important for female footballers that we are role models.

The great thing is that women's football is still very emotional and pure. There is much less hatred in many areas.

Despondency then gave way to anger, and today they are in the process of taking a stand. They want to be respected, no longer feel in danger, and make their contribution to building a healthier women's football.

People think female footballers do not have bright future and cannot make it through football, but they are gradually being proven wrong.

I know so many girls who used to be studying, working and playing football all at the same time. If you take that weight off then it means the female players can fully focus on being elite athletes.

In my opinion, one of the major things that’s so attractive about women’s football, especially for the fans, is how approachable we are. We always take time at the end of the games to take pictures with the fans, sign autographs and chat with them.

I chose to put my proceeds towards getting more women involved in leadership roles in football, which I think is important, especially as a woman in football myself. Just having coaches or people working on technical staff, even physios… just having women in that environment alongside men is important.

I want every girl to feel like football's a place for them, whether they want to coach, play, referee.

It's all right for women to cry, as it is for men to remember.

Like I said, my teammates were amazing…many times they backed me up when an opponent spit on me, kicked me or called me names. The entire experience of having a female on the football team was new for my teammates, coaches and the parents. All I wanted was to be treated equal.

If people didn't love me when I was scoring goals, putting South Africa on the map, why would I expect them to love me because I tell the truth about women's football?

All of this matters because if we can give better resources to young girls, allow them to focus only on football and not on finding a job to live. A lot of players today still have jobs beside their careers because we are far from equal football.

I had to cut my hair to play, so for me it's so important that little girls can play football if they want to. That's what I really want to fight for.