Coastal giants Blue Waters Football Club has over the years produced a significant number of great footballers who went on to become noted athletes in their own right.
One such athlete was the handsome ebony skinned lanky attacking midfielder Vincent Herman, aka ‘Botsotso’ amongst his teammates and vast circle of admirers.
The athletically built playmaker was blessed with all the maximum required ingredients of a complete footballer. He joined the Birds nest from eternal rivals Tigers where he cut his teeth as a student from the highly rated St Joseph’s Secondary School (Dobra) in the mid-eighties
Botsotso possessed an astonishing first touch, complemented by great vision, amazing dribbling skill, was an excellent passer of the ball and above all the gentle giant was blessed with a delicious left foot as can be attested by a few shot-stoppers whose deformed fingertips bear testimony to his ferocious merciless pile drivers.
In today’s edition of your weekly sports feature Tales of the Legends, profiling past and present sports heroes and heroines, New Era Sport takes you our esteemed reader down memory lane as we relive the untold football journey of one of the most skillful footballers to have emerged from our shores, one Vincent ‘Botsotso’ Hermann.
Carlos ‘CK’ Kambaekwa
Windhoek
Born as Vincent Hermann in 1958 in the eastern village of Witvlei in the Gobabis District, Omaheke Region, the young lad started his schooling at the St Joseph’s Catholic Mission School (Dobra), north-east of Namibia’s capital Windhoek.
A highly gifted athlete, the soft-spoken youngster started playing football with his classmates at school and was a valuable member of Sorento Bucks FC, a social team at the school hostel.
In hindsight, the versatile midfielder looked like someone who could hardly harm a fly but was a real menace for opposing defenders on the field of play, masterfully weaving his body around robust markers to lay killer passes in the path of his goal-hungry forwards.
His casual style of play and unbelievable ball trickery caught the attention of football followers with talent scouts from Katutura giants Tigers taking note. He was eventually lured to the Tigers’ den in the late seventies and as they say, the rest is history.
Here he formed a telepathic partnership with Ingwe’s blue-eyed boy, the free scoring stocky forward Johannes Utini Angala, aka General.
Botsotso found himself thrown in at the deep end in a star-studded squad that had the uncompromising Umati brothers Grey and Kumi, Mentos Hipondoka, Brown Amwenye, Bollie Kandonga, Sekulu Hipondoka, Silas Nujoma and Scalla Shaanika entrenched in their arsenal.
Just like dozens of extraordinary athletes who graced the football pitches on local soil such as the irreplaceable Times Mwetuyela, sharpshooter Kaputji Kuhanga, dribbling wizards Norries Goraseb, George Hoveka, Steps Nickel and //Nerab Gariseb, among many others, Botsotso fell perfectly in the same bracket using both feet effectively and surely lived up to the strong belief that left-footed athletes are from a different planet.
An incredibly intelligent athlete, Vincent was nicknamed Botsotso and though the name might be mistakenly associated with ‘Tsotsie’ – this is in total contrast of the real meaning of ‘Botsotso’.
According to the Oxford Dictionary, the definition of Tsotsie is a darkish hide South African boy (young black criminal) who is capable of producing a sharp object (okapi) at the slightest provocation.
Nevertheless, ‘Botsotso’ simply means a sharp-minded (brainy) bloke who has mastered the challenging art of how to wangle his way out of tight corners (Wakey).
Botsotso cemented his place in Tigers’ starting eleven becoming a much sought-after commodity amongst the finest midfielders in the business.
Surprisingly, the likable attacking midfielder sent shockwaves amongst the Ingwe faithful when he relocated to the harbour town of Walvis Bay to find refuge with coastal giants Blue Waters after he received a tempting job offer at sea level.
It was not long before Botsotso started pulling the strings in the Birds’ engine room supplying killer passes to the firing line led by sharp-shooting flying winger Kaputji Kuhanga, attackers Bazooka Shipanga, Boy-Boy Ndjadila, Hennie Dawid and Berro Tobias amongst a galaxy of stars.
In 1981, Botsotso followed in the footsteps of some of his peers and skipped the borders of his motherland to go into exile to further his academic aspirations away from the discriminatory laws and the much-condemned Bantu education system under the South African apartheid regime, while still at the pinnacle of his blossoming football career.
Sadly the brother was one of those unfortunates who never returned to their native land to enjoy the fruits of freedom upon Namibia’s democracy in 1990. May his soul rest in eternal peace.