Mbele Nonhlanhla laced up her silver cleats as her coach shouted encouragement to the creaky knees, stiff backs and laboured breathing in a dressing room in South Africa's far north.

At 63, wearing jersey number 10 and sporting brown-dyed hair, the grandmother of seven was far from your typical footballer when she stepped onto the field for her first international tournament.

"I feel like a superstar," Nonhlanhl grinned, revealing a missing tooth. "They call me the goal machine."

Her team, Vuka Soweto, hails from the renowned township of Soweto outside Johannesburg.

It had joined more than a dozen others from across Africa and beyond to compete this week at the Grannies International Football Tournament in the northern province of Limpopo.

The four-day "Grannies World Cup" was held in a stadium with sweeping mountain views.

The 30-minute games were played in two halves at a slow but purposeful pace, between teams from as far as the United States, France and Togo.

"It is all about active ageing. Whether........

© International Business Times