SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Just over four days in April, a group of women from all over the world - from Kenya to France to the United States - travel to South Africa to prove just how tough older women can be. The event the Grannies International Football Tournament, which is, of course, soccer to us. Reporter Ryan Lenora Brown sends us this story.
(SOUNDBITE OF HORN BLARING)
RYAN LENORA BROWN: It's a hot, sticky April morning in Nkowankowa, South Africa. A parade of soccer teams streams into the local stadium. One of them sings a fight song.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP #1: (Singing in non-English language).
BROWN: The words translate to something like, we're going to play ball. The grannies are going to play soccer. Think of this as a World Cup of sorts. One exclusively for women over 50. Teams from seven countries have come to this South African farming town to compete. Two squads from Boston hand out tiny American flags to the crowd.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP #2: (Singing) We've travelled a long, long way to South Africa. We're finding it beautiful, the people and the place.
BROWN: Many of these teams are fielding players in their 70s or even 80s, and the soccer is good. Like, really good. Lillian Zulu is a 54-year-old grandmother from Zambia.
LILLIAN ZULU: I'm very - you know, I've got - my talent in football is the way I run. I'm very quick. I play like Messi, you know? (Laughter) It's a joke.
BROWN: It's not really, though. Zulu is the captain of Team Zambia, and she is lightning quick.
(CHEERING)
BROWN: This is the second edition of the Grannies International Football Tournament, but many players are here for the first time, and this is a kind of adoration they never dreamed of. Here's French player Anne Auzeby, who is 52.
ANNE AUZEBY: It was like when a dream come true, you know? Like if we were professional football players.
BROWN: I also meet Fikile Sithole, age 55, who has actually known some soccer fame. In the 1990s, she was part of post-apartheid South Africa's first women's national team. And now, she's back on the pitch.
FIKILE SITHOLE: We train, we try and push ourselves. Let's do something. Let's not just sit 'cause it's going to help us tomorrow, and it's going to take us long to get old.
BROWN: These days, she's playing for a Grannies team from the city of Mbombela.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP #3: (Singing in non-English language).
BROWN: She and her teammates glide across the field using a well-known South African style called shoeshine and piano with dancelike footwork and tight passes. They storm all the way to the semifinals and lead that game until the final 5 minutes. But then their French opponents come roaring back.
UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: It's a goal.
BROWN: It's a crushing defeat, but as soon as the game is over, players from the opposing sides pull each other into sweaty hugs. It's like that at this tournament. On the field, no one holds back. And in the stands, it's basically a nonstop party led by the South Africans.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP #4: (Singing in non-English language).
BROWN: In the end, an American team wins the tournament.
(CHEERING)
BROWN: But there's also an award you wouldn't expect at a soccer tournament. In a black track suit, wrapped in a Kenyan flag, Tala Kaino takes the stage.
UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: Tala Kaino from Kenya.
BROWN: She is 87-years-old. A fitting way to end a tournament that doesn't see aging as something to run from. Here, in fact, it's a badge of honor. For NPR News, I'm Ryan Lenora Brown. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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