\n<\/p>\n
Born in the village of Thamaga, Dithebe would sneak out to play football as a child while her mother, who was concerned about her schooling being affected, was out of the house.<\/p>\n
The player overcame a difficult spell playing in France, where she suffered from homesickness, before opening Botswana’s Wafcon account in a 4-2 win over Burundi three years ago.<\/p>\n
Dithebe was “very nervous” before her finals debut and group stage meetings with nine-time winners Nigeria and eventual champions South Africa,<\/a> but Botswana advanced as one of the best third-placed teams.<\/p>\n “Some of the players were like my own mothers, the ones I looked up to,” she remembers.<\/p>\n “When I met them on the pitch, I felt like, ‘Am I going to do this or not?’.<\/p>\n “In Botswana, we don’t have many players around Europe, so sometimes playing the best is very, very difficult.<\/p>\n “It’s like, ‘Why am I competing with the best when I’m playing at a lower level?’.”<\/p>\n Dithebe credits her older team-mates with her momentous start to the tournament.<\/p>\n “I knew what I have and what I’m capable of. I felt the pressure then and said, ‘Why am I afraid to do this?’,” she said.<\/p>\n “I scored the goal because they were very, very aggressive – telling me, ‘Come on, you can do this’.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n