{"id":33750,"date":"2023-09-17T10:38:40","date_gmt":"2023-09-17T10:38:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/thetsane-dreams-big"},"modified":"2023-09-17T10:49:18","modified_gmt":"2023-09-17T10:49:18","slug":"thetsane-dreams-big","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/thetsane-dreams-big","title":{"rendered":"Thetsane dreams big"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>Lesotho international Lesia Thetsane\u2019s career is growing in leaps and bounds in the United States after the defender led Ballard FC to two titles this season in their second tier of American football.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old initially left the country for a football and academic scholarship in 2016 at State Fair Community College, which was facilitated by Kick4Life, where he used to play his football.<\/p>\n

Thetsane admitted that his ambition is to secure a move to the Major League Soccer (MSL) in the US and rub shoulders with the big boys such as Argentina superstar Lionel Messi, who recently joined Inter Miami.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a good season; I think it was a very successful season. Last year was still successful, but we kind of fell short as we did not win any trophy despite making it to the play-offs,\u201d Lesia said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis time around we made it to the play-offs and won our conference. After winning the conference, we went all the way to the national play-offs and won it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good feeling to enjoy this success as the captain of the team.<\/p>\n

Credit goes to my teammates because they make me a better player, a disciplined player and a hard worker as I cannot let down my coaches since they know most of the players look up to me.
\nThe defender, who last represented his country in the goalless draw against Ivory Coast in July last year during the qualifiers of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, stated that playing his football so far away from home has made him a better player.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not an easy job because sometimes we lose a game, but I have to lead by example and help the players get their groove back,\u201d the former Makoanyane XI captain said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely not easy but my team-mates make it easy for me, but it\u2019s a good feeling to have won trophies with the team and credit to everyone at the club because they make life easy for all of us.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels good to win trophies, and I win it for myself, family and country. It\u2019s really a good feeling and I appreciate the fact that I get a chance to live and do what I love and make my parents and country proud,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Thetsane said his dream is to one day play in the MSL and is adamant it will come true soon as he received an invitation to train with Seattle Sounders last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ambition is to always be at the very highest level that I can, so yes, if I can play in the MSL, it\u2019s an ambition that I\u2019m working on right now,\u201d Thetsane said.<\/p>\n

Thetsane has won eight caps for the senior national team since graduating from the Under-20 team, Makoanyane XI, but has missed a lot of Likuena matches in recent years due to academic commitments.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Lesotho<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. Lesotho international Lesia Thetsane\u2019s career is growing in leaps and bounds in the United States after the defender led Ballard FC to two titles this season in their second tier of American football. The 26-year-old initially left the country for a football and academic scholarship in 2016 at State Fair Community College, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":33749,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[233,246,125,245],"class_list":["post-33750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-football","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"\nThetsane dreams big - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Lesotho international Lesia Thetsane\u2019s career is growing in leaps and bounds in the United States after the defender led ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/thetsane-dreams-big\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Thetsane dreams big\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lesotho international Lesia Thetsane\u2019s career is growing in leaps and bounds in the United States after the defender led ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/thetsane-dreams-big\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-09-17T10:38:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-09-17T10:49:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/09\/sm_1694935074.347383.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/thetsane-dreams-big#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/thetsane-dreams-big\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Thetsane dreams big\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-09-17T10:38:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-09-17T10:49:18+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/thetsane-dreams-big\"},\"wordCount\":504,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/thetsane-dreams-big#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/09\/sm_1694935074.347383.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"football\",\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/thetsane-dreams-big#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/thetsane-dreams-big\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/thetsane-dreams-big\",\"name\":\"Thetsane dreams big - 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