Banyana Banyana forward Thembi Kgatlana is in fine form for Tigres UANL in Liga MX Femenil and the 28-year-old is not surprised by the success she and other African players have found in Mexico and the NWSL.
Kgatlana has scored five goals in her last eight appearances for Tigres. Most recently, she scored in a 5-1 win over Monterrey, with South Africa teammate Jermaine Seoposenwe missing the game for Tigres' opponents.
However, Seoposenwe has been every bit as prolific as Kgatlana overall since moving to Mexico a year earlier in 2022 - initially with Juárez before her 2023 move to Monterrey.
Fellow South Africa internationals Hildah Magaia and Amogelang Motau (Club Tijuana) are also in Liga MX Femenil. However, the experience of facing Seoposenwe has been particularly exciting for Kgatlana, with both teams regularly fighting for titles.
Kgatlana told ESPN: "It brings a lot of excitement to the games between me and Jermaine [that] we play for different teams... Whatever it is that we learn [in Mexico], we take it back to the national team whenever we get a chance to play together."
Kgatlana has been a key part of a generation of Banyana players which has broken barriers at major tournaments. They competed at their first ever FIFA Women's World Cup in 2019, with Kgatlana scoring their first ever World Cup goal in a 3-1 defeat to Spain.
Subsequently, they won the Women's Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) in 2022 and made the round of 16 at the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup. Kgatlana scored the winner against Italy to send them through to the knockout rounds, where they fell at the first hurdle against the Netherlands in Sydney.
This is also a golden era for Zambia in particular, with Barbra Banda starring in the NWSL with Orlando Pride and scoring the winning goal in the final while Racheal Kundananji had a solid debut season for Bay FC.
Meanwhile, Malawi's Temwa Chawinga broke Sam Kerr's single season NWSL goals record and won the league's MVP award.
While Kgatlana enjoys a strong run of form in Mexico, she is not surprised to see her African counterparts excelling in the USA: "I've seen them; I know them. I know what they can do.
"I think they were not so exposed to playing in that league for many years because they were playing in Europe and in China and a lot of people didn't know about them.
"Once they went to the NWSL, a lot of people knew about them because of the exposure at the league, the number of games that are shown [on television and] the number of people who are watching it...
"When everyone was talking about Temwa and Barbra, I wasn't surprised."
Kgatlana has played in NWSL herself, for Houston Dash and Racing Louisville FC. She has also featured for China's Beijing BG Phoenix, Portuguese giants Benfica and Spain's Eibar and Atlético Madrid.
Speaking on her experience in Liga MX Femenil compared to other league's she has played in, Kgatlana said: "The league is different here compared to Europe, China and the NWSL.
"The league in the US is more physical; it's very demanding physically. Everyone has to run, everyone has to be fast; everyone has to step up in terms of physicality.
"Europe is tactical - watching a lot of video. You need to understand the game before you even go to play the game. Here in Mexico, it's a bit of both (physical and tactical)."
Roughly midway through the Clausura, Tigres sit fifth in the league. With Kgatlana hitting top form, they will be counting on her to deliver silverware to add to the Apertura title she picked up last season.
Apart from making history on the pitch, Banyana's current team also made waves off it when they protested ahead of the 2023 World Cup over compensation issues and other problems with the South African Football Association (SAFA).
The protests took the form of a boycott of a warm-up game against Botswana, which was played at Tsakane Stadium - a venue which the World Cup squad deemed unfit for international football. While the protest took place, Banyana got a makeshift team together, which was thumped 5-0.
Kgatlana said: "There was a build-up and it led to us protesting. Everyone asking for really small things to help us become professional players.
"[Some of us] are playing overseas [and know] what the standards are, what the level of supposed to be. We've sacrificed so much to go to the national team and when we get there, we don't have equal treatment.
"I think it was fair for the players to ask for what they deserved and it had been coming for a long time. I think the protests were coming anyway - whether it happened in the year of the World Cup or not, they were coming because of the successes of Banyana Banyana and players seeing that they do not deserve [mistreatment].
"Thank you to the (the South African Football Players') Union, because they helped us see what had been missing for a long time."
South Africa's next big challenge will be to defend their WAFCON title in July in Morocco, and Kgatlana will hope to go into that tournament on the high of taking the league title off Seoposenwe's Monterrey.