They may find themselves in the doldrums of domestic football currently, strutting their stuff in unfamiliar territory in the country’s second tier division, but former football giants Chief Santos, have certainly left a long lasting legacy in the annals of local football.
Santos, previously known as Etosha Lions Football Club has a long and illustrious history that dates back to the days when the squad had incumbent Namibian Prime Minister Dr Hage Geingob in their squad as a no nonsense fullback. Despite being holed up in the remote enclave of the Copper Town, Tsumeb almost 400 kilometres away from the capital Windhoek, the men from the northern mining town defied all odds and as history would reveal, Santos easily went on to become one of the most successful football clubs in Namibia before independence.
Bernard Neiseb, also known as Ben, is a former defender with the Copper Town lads and one of very few footballers from that neck of the woods to watch several generations come and go during an extended and illustrious stint with Santos where he also navigated the sticks as team captain. Ben’s own story also stands as testimony to the unique and significant contribution Chief Santos as a football club has made to the history of the beautiful game in Namibia.
TSUMEB – Ben started out playing street football with a tennis ball before he went to attend the Roman Catholic Mariabron Primary School, sandwiched between Tsumeb and Grootfontein.
Back home in his native town where he was born in 1963, Ben teamed up with boyhood buddies Pele Ouseb, Conrad ‘Safari’ Angula, Ogies Nanuseb, Naftalie Goraseb, Martin ‘Voete’ Uri-Khob, Draka Shetekela, Dawid Kerekete and Muvii Uri-Khob in the popular unofficial stake games. He would occasionally feature for a small football club going by the name of Black Shadows FC. Playing on the right wing, Ben was fast as lightning and would leave many defenders in the lurch with his tricky runs and amazing eye for goal. Like many other young gifted footballers in the neigbourhood, Ben was gradually drafted into the Chief Santos second strings as time went on. When it was time to try his luck in the elite squad, Ben had to sacrifice his thirst for goals after he was converted to fullback, since he found it difficult to break into the first team with available places for a starting berth rightfully occupied by established strikers such as Celle Auchumeb and Mannetjie Neidel. However, this did not discourage him and the hard galloping Ben went on to establish himself as a noted defender, who took no prisoners and making the number three jersey his own property in the process. “We had a very good and well balanced squad under the stewardship of Stone Hoeseb, while players like Bandike Ochurub, Steps Nickel, Kapapi Ochurub, Gabes Basson and Bernard Ochurub were in a class of their own,” recalls Ben.
His rock steady defense propelled Santos to the Mainstay Cup final in 1985 where they lost 4-0 against the rampant Joseph Martin’s inspired Ramblers outfit at the old Katutura Stadium in Windhoek (now the Sam Nujoma Stadium). Ben scored two valuable goals in the semifinal against Dynamos in Grootfontein, but was unfortunately injured in the same match – thus missing the final the following week. When the old guard had all but faded out it was left to Ben and other younger players to resurrect the team and keep the fires burning, a task he grabbed with both hands and handled with great aplomb. In came the golden generation led by Lucky Kakuva, Gerros ‘The Bomber’ Uri-Khob, Mohammed ‘Slice’ Ouseb, Puli Subeb, Marcellus Witbeen, Player Wimmerth, Chris Subeb, Armstrong Anderson and Dave Gaeseb – all highly talented young athletes, who surprised all and sundry with their simple brand of one touch football under the tutorship of wily mentor Max Johnson in the formative years of independent Namibia.
During his illustrious career with Santos, the overlapping fullback enjoyed unsurpassed success as Santos won the national flagship league, accompanied by breathtaking triumphs in the country’s most-sought-after knockout tournament, the Namibia Football Association (NFA) Windhoek Lager Cup. He also represented the TCL football Invitational XI during their South African safari to Johannesburg and Cape Town where they played against South African Professional Soccer League (PSL) campaigners Light Body Santos and Hellenic second strings. “We won three games, drew 2 and lost 1 – certainly not a bad record considering our amateur status,” he recalls proudly. During his spell with Santos, the team never finished outside the top three teams in the country’s Premier League.
However, his flourishing football career came to an abrupt end after picking up a career threatening knee injury following another NFA Cup final appearance, while way into the twilight of his football career. Ben views former team mate and one time Black Africa acrobatic shot-stopper Dave Gaeseb as the most exciting footballer to have shared the football pitch with him and says the most difficult opponents to ever face Santos were incumbent Namibian champions Black Africa. “They (BA) were spoilt for choice where it mattered the most in the middle of the park, where games are won or lost. They were loaded with skillful midfielders, who could tear apart any team on any day.” He also enjoyed the countless battles of Santos against the ‘Kings of the Night’ as Young Ones Football Club was affectionately known amongst football fans across the country in those days. “In all honesty Young Ones used to be the team to beat, because they had their own unique style of going about the business by playing simple one touch football and creating attacking space whenever the situation demanded. The problem with many football clubs from Windhoek and Walvis Bay is that they did not have a defined strategy to neutralize the Young Ones style of play and always fell victim to their football virtuosity. “At Santos we worked out a strategy to outmanoeuvre them and it worked like a bomb, as we frustrated and interrupted their customary rhythm by playing long balls, kicking the ball over their midfield and giving them little space to settle down and play their normal game.”
By Carlos ‘CK’ Kambaekwa