Otniel Hembapu
Windhoek-Former Brave Warriors enterprising striker Rudolf Bester is set to officially retire from club football at the end of this season, as an assortment of niggling injuries have robbed him of valuable game time at MTC Namibia Premier League (NPL) coastal outfit Eleven Arrows FC.
Bester, who remains Namibia’s senior football team all-time top goal scorer with 13 goals in 46 appearances, disclosed in a recent interview with South African leading football magazine Kick Off that he will officially retire from club football at the end of the current term.
“I’ll retire at the end of the season in the Namibian league due to injuries. I hardly play anymore and I’m as good as retired with only three league matches to go,” Bester, who also played for South African giants Orlando Pirates, told Kick Off.
Bester left Eleven Arrows in the 2009/10 season for South African side Maritzburg United and immediately made an impact in his first season in the PSL, scoring nine goals to help Maritzburg narrowly survive relegation.
He also scooped the PSL Goal of the Season award with a cracking finish past Kaizer Chiefs goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune after turning his marker Jimmy Tau at Orlando Stadium.
Bester would later go on to join Pirates in the 2011/12 season, and notably be remembered for scoring a stunning winner as a substitute against Jomo Cosmos to help Bucs retain the league title under Augusto Palacios.
“’Tebza’ [Teboho Moloi, then Pirates assistant coach] said ‘now or never Bester my laaite’,” Bester recalls.
“And I remember coach Augusto Palacios saying, ‘I know you’ll score.’ Seriously I’m not lying, you can ask him. Then I went in but I said to myself if I play closer to the main striker I won’t be able to get a chance. So I moved a bit closer to Oupa Manyisa and I said ‘play inter-passes’ so I can set myself up. Tebza was shouting, ‘gaan by die man, bly lanks hom!’ [go to the main striker].”
Bester, who also played for Golden Arrows, Free State Stars and Moroka Swallows, won the league, MTN8 and Telkom Knockout with Bucs in 2011/12. He was also part of the Brave Warriors squad that represented the country at the 2008 African Nations Cup in Ghana. – Additional info: Kickoff.com