The South African forward recounts the excitement of helping her Turkish side to its first domestic league diadem in history.
Letago Madiba has narrated how special she felt to be part of ALG Spor after winning the Turkish Kadinlar Ligi title for the first time.
The South African was a 2019 summer signing for ALG from Minsk, where she spent her 2018-19 season, helping them to two titles and to the Women’s Champions League Round of 16.
Following the coronavirus cancellation, Mehmet Karayılan’s ladies, who garnered 43 points from 15 games to stay on top were declared the Turkish champions early in July.
Since arriving in Turkey, the 29-year-old was a standout for the Turkish outfit, scoring 12 goals and gave seven assists in 14 outings and is delighted in being part of the club’s historic title feat.
“It is a true blessing and honour to have been a part of this team,” Madiba told Goal.
“When I arrived at ALG a year ago, it was an ambitious club, I had only been playing in the first league for a few years.
“To have won the league for the first time in the clubs’ history is special and our qualification to the Uefa Women’s Champions League [UWCL] is a great moment for the city of Gaziantep and the club.
“The president [Ali Gozcu] made it clear that this was the goal and I’m proud to have contributed to it.”
Despite a fine debut season blighted by Covid-19, she bagged a couple of individual prizes, including being named Turkish Player of the Week thrice and made the Team of the Week six times.
Looking back on her brief but great campaign, the Banyana Banyana forward shared her unforgettable moment with the Gaziantep outfit.
“I don’t necessarily have a high and low point in my career at ALG,” she continued.
“I started slow, despite scoring on my debut, I really flourished midway through the season where I was scoring nearly every weekend and the coach was really happy. Unfortunately, the season was put on hold when I was at my peak.
“I would say I played my best game against Konak Belediyespor away, it was a tough game and with the game approaching the end, Rachel [Sebati] set me up perfectly to score the winner and I think at this moment we all believed we could win the league.
“The team celebrated throughout the night in Izmir with our president. This is a moment I won’t easily forget.”
Before the league’s suspension in March, ALG held a point lead in the summer ahead of last season’s winners Besiktas in second with 42 points and Konak Belediyespor in third with 37 points.
Despite being crowned champions following the season’s cancellation, she still feels the decision taken was unfair to all while lauding her teammates’ fantastic showing throughout the season.
“It was disappointing, to be honest, the men’s Super League had been cleared to restart but the women’s league was cancelled,” she said.
“It also took the federation long to make the decision which leads to greater uncertainty and frustration. But, we understood the health concerns are most important and we as ALG never stopped our training under strict precautions in the case we were due back.
“We as a team wanted the restart, we always believed we would win the league and wanted to show it on the field.
“The team performed well, we have a good group of players who all fought for the win and everyone contributed as can be seen by us having several goalscorers and not only relying on the strikers for the goals.
“The cancellation has not affected the team’s aspirations, as the goal from the start of the season was to win the league which despite us not playing all games, we were able to win the league with zero losses.
“I believe we were fairly granted the title as we beat all teams including the reigning champions Besiktas away and conceded the least goals in the league. Our performance was worthy of the championship.”
Madiba has now won her second domestic title in Europe, adding to her maiden success in Belarus with champions Minsk in 2019.
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