WINDHOEK – From humble beginnings on the dusty football fields in Ongwediva near Oshakati in the spacious Oshana Region, former Tigers centre back Willem Mwedihanga, better known as Dudes among his peers in football circles, is certainly destined for the bigger stage.
The 27-year-old likeable beanpole defender who stabilized a fragile Tigers rearguard during his formative years in topflight football has never played competitively at the highest level nor was he chosen for any of the national youth teams before joining Tigers from lowly Teenagers FC, interposed by sporadic appearances for the Oshana regional team during the popular annual Namibian Newspaper Youth Cup.
Despite having been overlooked by national selectors, Dudes captained the Oshana regional youth football invitation team to victory in the 2007 edition of the annual Namibian Newspaper Youth Cup under the auspices of the Namibia Football Association (NFA). The towering defender started out as an out and out striker as can be attested to by his regular forays whenever his team launches attacks.
Dudes became a valuable member of the star-studded TISAN football team and joined local team Tigers FC in 2008 and made his debut against local rivals Orlando Pirates in a league match that ended in a 1-all stalemate. It was not long before he caught the eye of national selectors and earned the admiration of the country’s leading sports scribes, while he also gained respect from fellow players, including the opposition with his impressive display in the heart of Ingweinyama’s defence. His near faultless display and consistent performance convinced the Tigers hierarchy to give him the captain’s armband – two years after he joined the country’s oldest football team.
Dudes was one of the star performers when he made his debut for the Brave Warriors in an international friendly against Malawi last year. Namibia won the tie by a solitary goal in Lilongwe and from that day on any Brave Warriors team sheet without the name of Dudes Mwedihanga on it would be considered incomplete. He played a blinder when Namibia met Morocco in a warm-up match at the Rand Stadium in Johannesburg in 2012 and his impressive performance on that particular day did not go unnoticed with various talent scouts in attendance. Amazulu’s coach Craig Roslee was among the spectators and immediately took note of Dudes’ qualities by offering the towering defender a contract with the Kwazulu/Natal club straightaway.
It was a dream come true for the rookie defender since it is the ultimate ambition of any aspiring footballer to ply his trade in the lucrative South African Professional Soccer League (PSL). At the time of writing this article, Dudes had accumulated nine starts and two substitute appearances for Amazulu in Africa’s richest football league. He was an unused substitute in Amazulu’s 1-0 win against Morokka Swallows last weekend, certainly a noteworthy feat for the soft-spoken defender.
“To be quite honest, I never really took football seriously until some of my friends and lots of other people attached to football told me that I have the talent to go very far in the game if I remained focused.” His arrival at Amazulu paved the way for the club to recruit three more Namibian players in the shape of Pineas Jacob, Larry Horaeb and Sadney Uri-Khob. “There is not much difference between our game and South African football in general, the only difference is that the set-up in South Africa is more professional, while the players take their football more seriously.”