Carlos Kambaekwa
So an era is coming to an end? – The football career of one of Namibia’s most dedicated footballers is going to become statistics in just over 24 hours.
Amos “The Rock” Shiyuka is finally bidding farewell to the game he served with so much distinction amidst all sorts of odds staked against him, which saw his promising career hampered by persistent career-threatening injuries.
However, the Rock’s unquenchable thirst for the beautiful game has always inspired him to overcome these setbacks as he resurfaced time and again to lead his beloved Civilians to unequalled glory in the history of Namibian football.
I’ve personally known “The Rock of Gibraltar” since his Kamashona days when he just started slaving for his current paymasters MTC in the mid-90s.
In fact, I’m not at all surprised that the darkish hide boy from the Copper town of Tsumeb – whom my troublesome and ageing eyesight sometimes finds very hard to distinguish when dark sets in – managed to climb up the corporate ladder so fast, because his leadership qualities were already visible by the time he was hardly out of his nappies.
As a kaalvoet laaitie, his growing popularity saw him being given the nod by his hard-to-please but more street-smart pals while campaigning in the popular two-bob soccer challenges in the dusty streets of Nomtsoub, and by extension at school level.
The strongly-built defender always captained whichever team he featured in, and this feat subsequently led to him being given the captain’s armband of the all-conquering Civilian outfit in the intervening years.
The Rock captained all the National Youth teams ranging from the Under-16 up to the Under-23s, and came within touching distance of repeating that feat with the senior team as Deputy to Bidvest Wits’ tough-as-steak defender Richard Gariseb until a nagging knee injury cut short his promising but short-lived engagement with the Brave Warriors.
Amos might not rank among the most talented and skilful players on the field of play, surely not your modern type of Michael Pienaar defender, but the boy has a fair amount of grey substance between his ears which enables him to read the game well, and he also possesses some uncompromising defensive qualities that make him one of the most feared defenders in domestic football.
Many football pundits don’t seem to realize how much Captain Fantastic has contributed to the development of football off the field, but yours truly can attest to many contributions he made to the beautiful game.
He played a key role in the introduction of the prematurely terminated popular MTC Soccer Pitch demographic which was aired every Wednesday on NBC TV, and his shadow at MTC doubtlessly paved the way to the 40-million-dollar football windfall.
Let us all go out in large numbers and fill the Independence Stadium to its rafters tomorrow and bid farewell to a great son of the soil as he bows out of the game in great fashion when he leads the “Amos and Friends” line-up in his Benefit Match against a star-studded Doctor Khumalo-led Invitational side boasting a number of semi-retired stars from the “Class of 96”, which also includes my innocent pal, Linda Buthelezi.
Most of these toppies might be past their prime – but my somewhat oversized nostrils tell me there are still some deft touches left in those ageing legs and this special occasion should also give football fans a platform to embrace the much-anticipated return of Forra Nicodemus to public life.
The nimble-footed former Brave Warriors’ net-rattler will be dusting off his dancing shoes to show the locals some familiar routines when he teams up with Joseph Gaya Martin in the Amos and Friends Invitation’s attack to rekindle their goal-scoring prowess from their heyday.
Fellah is the Sacrificial Lamb in Match-Fixing Scandal
Yours truly has learned with great shock and disbelief about the serious allegations on match-fixing levelled against one of the most prominent figures ever to have graced Namibian football, Dawid “Fellah” Snewe.
Surprisingly, these allegations have suddenly galvanized football authorities to start flexing their muscles in an apparent bid to get to the root of this jiggery-pokery in the business of domestic football.
Ja, a Leopard just never changes its spots – just because a club official has apparently laid a criminal charge against the “Big Lion of the North”, all of a sudden people are starting to smell a rat, absolute beef! – Do we really need a rocket scientist to make us aware of the Indian Salute, which is so crystal clear in domestic football?
We should not become selective when dealing with matters of natural justice because events of late clearly suggest there is a definite sting in the tale after several high-profiled matches were rendered uncompetitive by the final results.
How does one explain a situation where a player with a goal-scoring ratio of half a goal per game in a season suddenly finds the net on seven occasions against formidable opponents, and what about a title-chasing team that let in 12 goals in the last 45 minutes of the game after conceding almost the same number of goals during the entire season?
It’s about time the NFA Consortium of Sponsors stepped in and cleared up the mess once and for all, because one cannot plead good corporate governance while your partners are cruising in the opposite direction.
Match-fixing and Bribery stroll in tandem, and this exercise is nothing new to Namibian football, even some prominent members of the leadership are in the habit of wangling their way through the ranks during Election time.
I rest my case, at least for the time being!