By Carlos “CK” Kambaekwa
OKAHANDJA – It’s a well-documented secret that the mid 60s and early 70s happened to be the most successful time for the Nau-Aib outfit.
Spoilers unearthed highly gifted young talent from the neigbourhood in the mould of Doc Naobeb, George Gariseb, Jomo Haoseb, Timotheus Goagoseb, Hans Haraseb, Emil Garoeb and Moses Omeb – culminating in several pieces of silverware finding refuge in the club’s trophy cabinet from highly competitive knockout tournaments across the country.
Spoilers dominated football in Okahandja and surroundings towns for many years giving top visiting teams from Windhoek a damn decent run for their money in the then popular exhibition games until the arrival of a team composed of youngsters going by the name of Battle Boys.
And while traditional rivals Zebras (to be known as Black Beauty Chiefs (BBC) in later years) Young Eagles, Magic Tigers and Battle Boys all descendent on the journey of the dinosaur in the intervening years – the blue and white stripped outfit managed to weather the storm and marshal on like true soldiers and its no surprise that Spoilers remain the only football club from that neck of the woods hoisting the town’s sacred flag in post-Independence Namibia.
Although the club has spent a good chunk of its playing days in the country’s national lower division leagues, Spoilers will be remembered as the only club from the Garden town to have supplied the bulk of footballers to the national football team.
One of the club’s most outstanding players was bulky framed legendary winger Doc Naobeb. He was among the very first black athletes to represent a fully multi-racial South West Africa (SWA) team in the then popular South African Provincial Currie Cup in East London in 1977.
Former African Stars highly rated overlapping fullback George Gariseb and lethal goal poacher Bernard “Hassie” Mingeri were to follow in Doc’s footsteps to become regulars campaigners in the annual showpiece. The former went onto make the number 2 jersey his own property at both club and country.
While the majority of clubs were called into life-along tribal lines in those days, Spoilers were slightly different and had other ethnic tribes in their armoury.
Andries Jagger, Theo Tukuru Katuezesirauina, Sacharias Bantam, Gustav Kanduu Zamuee and Frikkie Plaatjies were not descendents of the Damara tribe but turned out to be one club-man until their retirement from competitive football.
Other notable players donning the blue and white strip of Spoilers were: Nahason “Ou Natz” Haraseb, Jephta Naobeb, Siegfried “Jomo” Haoseb (both Ugly Creatures fame) Gotty Geiseb, Seth Manga, Emil Garoeb, the Naobeb siblings Moses, Steve, Doc and Mostertjie, Moses Gomeb, Helmuth Maletzky and the likeable educator the late Martin Neib.
Those in the know speak highly of Spoilers’ departed prolific net rattler, one Gabriel “Ilibib” Goagoseb. “That boy was an unbelievable talent and a phenomenal footballer. He was slippery and possessed a football brain second to none,” recalls the equally deadly former Orlando Pirates forward Ishmael “Lemmy Special” Narib, who used to rub shoulders with the dribbling wizard.
In the intervening years, Spoilers recruited a number of highly gifted youngsters from the popular Saint Josephs’ Secondary School (Dobra) to strengthen the squad. In no time, the squad was transformed into a competitive unit – becoming a major force to be reckoned with in domestic football.
Some of the well-known youngsters who went on to make a name for themselves were: Richard Gariseb, Erastus Gariseb, Gottfried “Kambule Hawaeb, Gerson “Pule” Goreseb (aka La-Friki), Max van Wyk, Donald Tjikune and iconic bassist Digub Haufiku, better known as Shange in musical circles.
Although the reliable local talent was a source of community pride, Spoilers never really fulfilled expectations as can be attested by the club’s failure to gain promotion to the country’s elite football league.
It proved increasingly difficult to compete at the top level with leading clubs from the city of lights (Windhoek) always ready to snatch up their most prized assets by dangling juicy carrots in their face promising Spoilers finest talent to abandon ship in exchange for better employment including a horde of unspecified career advancement opportunities.
In the 2010/2011 season, Spoilers won promotion to the much sought-after Namibia Football Association (NFA) Southern Stream Division One League under the astute mentorship of homegrown coach and former Brave Warriors midfield “Wunderkind” Congo Hindjou, as the dribbling wizard affectionately referred to as “Jakkals” among his vast circle of friends in the football fraternity.
The club is currently into its fifth consecutive season in the highly competitive NFA second tier division, the Southern Stream first division league with the ultimate aim to gain promotion to the country’s elite league in the foreseeable future.
Despite having produced a significant number of highly gifted footballers led by the trickery Gabriel “Ilibib” Goagoseb, who many describe as the best footballer of his generation, the football crazy garden town is yet to be wholly represented in the MTC Premiership and Spoilers are determined to change that scenario.
“Our primary objective is the keep the club’s legacy going and that ambition can only be attained by competing in the country’s top-flight league”, enthuses former club stalwart shot-stopper Gideon Maletzky.
The club is funded by local diamond company NAMGEM and is urgently appealing to other local business people in the town to come on board with assistance be it in kind, equipment or playing gear to make Spoilers a coveted brand in the sporting arena.
“All the inhabitants of our town have a collective moral obligation to set up and sustain institutions that can potentially assist children realize their dreams and keep them away from the evils of society such as alcohol abuse and many other disrupting influences that have become so prevalent in our communities,” adds Maletzky whose old man, the late Reinhardt, was one of the club’s pioneers.
In essence, Spoilers, as a collective unit, carried the burden of being ahead of times as the club textured an attractive brand of carpet football defying condescending categories legislated by apartheid laws and injustices. The blue and white-stripped Nau-Aib outfit remains a true foundation for the fight against cultural stagnation.