Paddling on the name of a football legend comes with a load of heavy expectations, but now-retired African Stars Football Club flying winger Edison Muheua was unfazed, so to speak.
Famously going by the name of ‘Chippa Masinga’ amongst his vast circles of friends and teammates alike in the football industry, the pocket-size speedy forward certainly lived up to his newly-acquired status. He proudly carried the name of the Bafana Bafana legend and goal-scoring machine, the late Philemon ‘Chippa’ Masinga. May his gentle soul continue to rest in power. The Reds’ number 15 arrived at the club in 2006 as the Katutura glamour football club went into an overdrive rebuilding process with a significant number of highly-gifted youngsters brought on board to steer the ship out of stormy waters. New Era Sport goes toe to toe with the outspoken streetwise flying winger, as we unpack his amazing untold football journey from the misty corridors of Mondesa, Swakopmund, to the well-laid-out lawn pitches across his motherland and beyond.
Katutura glamour football club African Stars have a long-standing history of unearthing raw gems since time immemorial, polishing and turning them into national superstars. One such beneficiary was Swakopmund-born lethal attacker Edison Muheua ‘Chippa Masinga’ Muheua.
Having started his remarkable football career with unfashionable Mondesa outfit Juventus FC, his arrival at ‘Okaserandu’, as African Stars is known, from Unam coincided with that of other talented teenagers recruited to rebuild an ageing squad.
Young Masinga teamed up with the likes of hard-tackling defender Andrew ‘Jaws of Life’ Tjahikika, Rudi Louw, Pat-Nevin Uanivi, Heinrich ‘Gazza’ Kazeurua, Ikuaterua Tjozongoro, Zizou Novengi and Dennis Ngueza-Tjetjinda, and was the designated ‘Langana’ in the Reds’ firing line.
An explosive, agile and diminutive winger usually operating on the right flank, Masinga was renowned for his amazing pace, creativity and brilliant decision-making in crucial areas. Barring his fragile frame, many doubted whether he would make the grade in the physical environment and dog-eat-dog business in the domestic topflight football league, but the resolute Masinga would have none of that and proved his doubters wrong.
The fairly young skinny boy bravely knuckled down to some serious business, making his doubters sit and eat humble pie with breath-taking performances. Masinga almost singlehandedly led the Reds’ front line with the confidence and arrogance of a seasoned campaigner.
Masinga’s name was always amongst the first on the team-playing list. He made his official debut for Stars against Eleven Arrows at the SKW stadium in the 2006/7 calendar year and never looked back ever since.
Such was his consistency and near faultless displays week in and week out for Stars, that he was amongst a group of talented players deservedly selected for the Brave Warriors Namibian Newspaper Cup Shadow team, alongside other promising youngsters with the majority of them going on to represent the country at senior level.
Back at club level, Masinga continued to torment robust defenders down the right wing with his trademark clever runs behind the defence, tricky dribbling, and jaw-dropping speed, ably complimented by goal-scoring prowess second to none. An extremely calculated well-spoken young man of decent upbringing, and mild manners, young Masinga was a dedicated one-club man.
The flying winger spent an amazing total of eight uninterrupted seasons at his beloved Stars before completely quitting playing competitive football to venture into other avenues whilst still at the peak of his amazing football career, having won almost all available silverware there was to be won in the following sequence: a pair of national league titles, complemented by a trio of NFA Cup gold medals; certainly, no mean feat.
The pocket-size flying winger also tasted international football when he toured Angola in 2010 with Stars to compete in a three-team mini tournament in Dundo, a filthy-rich diamond mining town, holed up in the Angolan north-east province Lunda Norte.
The well-grounded boy from Mondesa will go down in the club’s history books as a club legend, having played and rubbed shoulders with some of the greatest talents to have ever worn the sacred red, white and blue strip of Okaserandu.
Masinga can surely take pride that he has played in an era that saw the resurrected Okaserandu attract all the best players on offer that included the unplayable midfield pair of Quinton ‘Magic’ Jacobs, and Rudi ‘Robinho’ Louw, amongst a galaxy of stars that drew large crowds to their popular night games at the packed to the rafters Sam Nujoma stadium.