Leading women’s football representative, Christa Kgamphe, continues to reach great heights as she recently joined international agency – LTA. Her aim is to create a holistic career for the South African female footballer.
Kgamphe, who is currently a lecturer at the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT), has extensive work experience in sport. Starting in her formative years as a high school coach at the age of 16. She went on to play a part in the University of Johannesburg’s Football Club as a student assistant. This was followed by several roles as a fitness trainer, netball and basketball coach, nutritionist, team manager, and sport management facilitator in various sport and educational institutions in South Africa.
The awe-inspiring Kgamphe holds various football coaching licenses and certificates from the South African Football Association, as well as the Confederation of African Football.
Apart from her football achievements, she holds several degrees – BA with Honours in Sport Management, BTech in Business Administration, and NDs in Marketing and Sport Management.
gsport caught up with the inspirational Kgamphe – if all-rounder had a face, this is it!
Christa, Congratulations on your appointment at LTA Agency! Please tell us how this opportunity came about.
Thank you so much! I have been Refiloe Jane’s manager for some time before she became part of the agency. So, the agency appreciated the work I did with her brand thus far and my intentions to spread my wings. The agency got to know me better and I got to know the agency, too. After months of these engagements we came to an agreement. Here I am now, TADA!
What is your role at the agency?
First and foremost, I am the agency’s point of contact in South Africa in all the agency’s affairs. As a career manager, my role is to create a holistic career for our female football players. To create and maintain brands from the beginning of the career and post that period. As much as I am based in South Africa, I am also involved in international affairs as LTA is a team of representatives around the world.
What are you hoping to achieve through your position?
“I hope to water this seed called women’s football. We need to position ourselves and serve by creating a path for the future generation.” – LTA Agency Representative, Christa Kgamphe.
I hope to water this seed called women’s football. We need to position ourselves and serve by creating a path for the future generation. I would like to change any narrative that fuelled inferiority in our sports and in the society. I wish to better other people’s lives.
You have extensive work experience in sport. In your view, how has women’s sport evolved over the years?
My work experience goes beyond 2009 and it includes coaching a high school team at the age of 16. Women’s sport has since evolved even though it is at a snail pace. Today media coverage of women’s sport is better. Today we have at least one or two women in sports leadership positions. Some women are paid and can put a bit of food on the table. Women can perform on the world stage, so there has been a little evolution.
What have been some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced in the ongoing quest to develop women’s sport in our country?
The society/industry people dictating that I have to be one and not all I can be no matter how I would excel on different fields.
“My youthfulness and being female had disadvantages as many doors were closed because I am young a woman and not experienced enough, regardless of qualifications and knowledge.” – Kgamphe highlights the challenges she has endured being a woman in sport.
My youthfulness and being female had disadvantages as many doors were closed because I am young a woman and not experienced enough, regardless of qualifications and knowledge.
Also, minimal support from other women, even when it’s for the same women.
How have you been able to overcome these challenges?
I think it’s my attitude and purpose that got me through it all. I refuse to back down, I refuse to stop working hard, I refuse to stop living my truth and be the change I want to see in the world. I still get up to create a better tomorrow and I thrive on challenges.
You’ve been involved in the game on all tiers, from development to elite, how can we improve our structures in the country?
A bottom-up approach with a clearer bigger picture and bridging the gap between development and elite. When we know what we are developing for, we will understand how development should look like.
We need active systems, qualified people monitoring those systems and accountability.
How would you sum up your journey in sport so far?
Blessings on blessings. I have had an opportunity to learn, to serve, to grow, to touch lives and my life touched, too. Most importantly, the future keeps getting brighter.
You seem to have done it all, your star is beaming, is there still more in your list of ambitions?
To see most women athletes or not, living their dreams. I want to be the reason women don’t give up, positively changing one life at a time.
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