Nostalgic AFCON: When weah came calling

Mathew Adams Karauri (left), Assistant Minister and Chairman Caretaker Committee of Kenya Football Federation attempts to remove journalists encroaching on the playing surface at Nyayo National Stadium during an international  match.

By Gishinga Njoroge

Kenya should easily beat the Comoros in the forthcoming second round of the Africa Cup of Nations football qualifiers and if only for sentimental reasons, Harambee Stars’ third round opponents ought to be Liberia.

Liberia, ranked 34th in Africa on the Fifa books should eliminate No. 41 Lesotho. There is not much fun or anything exotic about playing Lesotho, a “country” landlocked inside the Republic of South Africa.

Liberia is different. An amazing country with a flag almost resembling that of the United States. They have American-type names too, like Charles Taylor and Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.

If Harambee Stars end up taking on Liberia in July, a whole recap of some tumultuous part of African history will unfold; and it will also be like we were back in 1989.

It was the only time that Kenya ever met Liberia in a football match. It will never be forgotten that in the Liberian team then was a man by the name of George Weah. Africa was beginning to know him. He was playing at Monaco, the famous club in the French League – the place where the richest people in the world lived.

Weah sounded awesome. Also like he was not even African. In Africa and in Kenyan one of his middle names, Oppong, was widely publicised. Sounded African.

SOME EXCITEMENT

So, when George Tawlon Manneh Oppong Ousman Weah was expected in Nairobi for that date with Harambee Stars on August 12 1989, it was amid quite some excitement; the kind that would in later days accompany ‘Pele’ Ayew, Tony Yeboah, Samuel Eto’o, Didier Drogba, or Yaya Toure whenever they came back to play in the continent.

George Oppong Weah was a pioneer of African top greatness in European soccer. Is he the greatest ever? To date, he is the only African to have ever become World Footballer of the Year (winner of the Ballon d’Or in 1995).

These days if Yaya Toure was, say, accompanied by his brother Kolo, Gervinho, Salomon Kalou, Tiote, Zokora, Wilfried Bony and even an aging Didier Drogba, to lead Cote d’Ivoire against Kenya in Nairobi a good number of people would shake in their boots. Don’t even think of giving Harambee Stars a chance to figh.

It was not like that when Weah arrived in 1989. An African football giant emerging in Europe, but so what? On their faces you saw an incredible fearless breed of footballers in Kenya those days.

What was notorious about Liberia, then, was how their President Samuel Kanyon Doe had, as a young non-commissioned officer (NCO) overthrown and executed President William Tolbert Junior in 1980.

Doe was a member of the indigenous people in the country opposed to Tolbert Jnr and most of the ruling class Americo-Liberian elites descended from the free-born and formerly enslaved African-Americans who founded Liberia in 1847.

Kenyans already respected what they had heard of Weah but the Harambee Stars men of those days were so confident that taking on any opposition at home and gaining satisfactory results was a matter of routine; expected victory as the norm. And that was why the Kenya national soccer team was so much loved those days.

Approaching 1987, there was no football ground that could contain the masses that followed Harambee Stars. First, Nyayo National Stadium had to be completed to accommodate the semi-finals of the Cecafa (Council of East and Central Africa Football Associations) Challenge Cup against Malawi on November 23 1983 – Kenya won 2-0 and it was on to witnessing Joe “JJ” Masiga’s sole goal down Zimbabwe in the Cup final for Harambee Stars’ “three-peat” that had began in 1981 under Marshal Mulwa.

In the intermittent period, after exit of coach Mulwa, there was a lull but form peaked again as the 65,000 seat Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani, was ready and roomy enough to host the Stars and see Ambrose Ayoyi almost bring down the roof with the winning goal against Tunisia in the opening football match of the 4th All Africa Games in 1987.

EVERY FAN’S DREAM

The tournament featured great teams such as Malawi with Clifton Msiya, the Waya brothers Harry and Lawrence, Jonathan Billie, Stock Dandize, Young Chimodzi, Senegal led by Jules Bocande, Roger Mendy, Thierno Youm and Oumar Sane, Cote d’Ivoire with Youssouf Fofana, Abdoulaye Traore and Oumar Ben Saleh and Cameroon with Thomas Nkono, Emmanuel Kunde, Andre Kana-Biyik, Louis-Paul Mfede, Emile Mbouh-Mbouh, Theophile Abega and Viktor Ndip.

These guys were world wonders operating in Europe and with great teams in Africa such as Bata Bullets, Admerc Tigers, Asec Mimosas, Africa Sports, Tonnere Yaounde, Canon Yaoundé or Jean d’Arc in the continent but soon to be snapped up by overseas clubs.

Yet, Kenya went all the way to the All Africa Games football final, losing the Gold medal to an Egyptian silly goal.

Watching African football — close-up, face-to-face with players and not on television — in the continent was every football fan’s dream; these days quite unimaginable. Going to the stadium, going past the gates and finding a place to sit or stand was an endurance test.

Graying pictures tell the story of when they there was no spot to even stand during an international fixture — or a big local club derby — for example, at Nyayo Stadium.

Rabah Madjer was perhaps the first African to win highest honours in Europe when he scored to lead Porto to the European Club Championship in 1987. If Algeria was drawn to play in Kenya in around that period, as was in an AFCON qualifier at Nyayo on August 4 1985, the place was packed with people expecting to see Madjer. Or earlier, Lakdar Belloumi whose goal against reigning European champions West Germany earned a stunning 2–1 victory in their World Cup debut in Spain ’82.

In one such incident at Nyayo an international match kick-off was delayed because the Kenya Media Corps could not find a place to perch other than on the tartan running track around the pitch.

The match commissioner ordered them to leave and when they did not budge, it to the Assistant Minister for Education Mathew Adams Karauri, a then caretaker committee of the Kenya Football Federation (KFF) to negotiate a truce with an angry Press Corps.

Among the Press people in the stand-off was revered newspaper columnist Philip Ochieng’, then a Managing Editor at the Daily Nation newspapers.

The opportunity to watch African football international was almost something to die for (see one of the pictures above on this feature).

When the that Italia ’90 Fifa World Cup qualifying tie against Weah approached in 1989 the Kenyan defence was confident and strong; David Ochieng’ and Washington Muhanji as the goalkeepers; Wycliffe Anyangu, Hassan Juma, Tobias Ochola, Austin Oduor, Gabriel Olang’ and Mickey Weche as the squad backline; George ‘Nyangi’ Odembo, Wilberforce ‘Maradona’ Mulamba, Douglas Mutua, Abbas ‘Zamaleck’ Magongo, John ‘Zangi’ Okelo and George “Fundi” Onyango as the skilled midfield work horses and the strikers being the lethal Sammy ‘Jogoo’ Onyango, David ‘Deo’ Odhiambo, Ambrose “Golden Boy” Ayoyi, Peter Dawo and Henry Motego.

Final encounter

But Kenya’s opposition in the Group ‘B’ Italia ‘90 qualifiers was formidable; Egypt, whom they had had the Final encounter in the ’87 All Africa Games and the Malawi team that they had eliminated from the semi-finals on penalty kicks, while George Oppong Weah almost single-handedly carrying Liberia made the task even more difficult.

Nevertheless it will be remembered that Harambee Star’s sole win, 1-0 (scorer ‘Jogoo’ Onyango in the 24th minute), was in the home encounter with Weah at Nyayo National Stadium. Harambee Stars drew 0-0 with Egypt and 1-1 with Malawi. They held Liberia 0-0 in Monrovia and lost 0-2 in Cairo and 0-1 in Malawi to miss out on qualification achieved by Egypt (eight points).

Liberia finished on six, having shocked both Egypt and Malawi 1-0 in Monrovia. That really made the point that Kenya had not at all been intimidated by Oppong Weah — the man who was going to be declared the best player in the world six years hence.

A lot will be different if Harambee Stars will take on Liberia in July in the AFCON qualifiers but some things will be ringing from the past. Liberia will not be having an Oppong Weah. It is long since he retired from football international football in 2007, aged 41, having played for his country for 20 years!

lost control

Almost straight after Weah’s encounters with Harambee Stars at Nyayo Stadium and in Monrovia, his country was embroiled in a civil war (1989 – ‘96) culminating with rebel fighter Charles Taylor overthrowing and executing Doe to take over as President in 1997.

After Taylor lost control of the country in 2003 and went into exile, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf won a 2005 Presidential elections and repeated victory in 2011. Both times, even the first when he was still a footballer, Oppong Weah ran for Presidency and lost to Sirleaf who occupies the pride of place as first elected female head of state in Africa.

The idolised Sirleaf will probably be the sole thing in mind about Liberia if and when Harambee Stars meet a team that should definitely walk under the old shadow of Weah.

The Sirleaf magic, however, may not be able to draw the same kind of crowds that followed Harambee Stars into the stadiums in the late 80s.

Liberia’s current crop of players are relative unknowns.

Apart from midfielders, captain Anthony Laffor (Mamelodi Sundowns, South Africa) and Sekou Oliseh (PAOK, Greece) Liberia are a nondescript crew.

2015 AFRICA CUP OF NATIONS QUALIFIERS

By GISHINGA NJOROGE

Elimination Second Round:
Match 5 & 6 Liberia v Lesotho
Match 7 & 8 Kenya v Comoros
Match 9 & 10 Madagascar v Uganda
Match 11 & 12 Mauritania v Equatorial Guinea
Match 13 & 14 Namibia v Congo
Match 15 & 16 Libya v Rwanda
Match 17 & 18 Burundi v Botswana
Match 19 & 20 Central African Republic v Guinea Bissau
Match 21 & 22 Swaziland v Sierra Leone
Match 23 & 24 Gambia v Seychelles
Match 25 & 26 Sao Tome e Principe v Benin
Match 27 & 28 Malawi v Chad
Match 29 & 30 Tanzania v Zimbabwe
Match 31 & 32 Mozambique v South Sudan
Third round 1st leg 18–20 July 2014
Third round 2nd leg 1–3 August 2014

HOW YOUR TEAM GETS TO MOROCCO 2015:

Group ‘A’:
1.Nigeria
2.South Africa
3. Sudan
And either:  Namibia/Congo/Libya/Rwanda
Group ‘B’:
1.Mali
2.Algeria
3. Ethiopia
And either:  Sao Tome e’ Principe/Benin/Malawi/Chad
Group ‘C’:
1.Burkina Faso
2.Angola
3.Gabon
And either:  Liberia/Lesotho/Kenya/Comoros

Group ‘D’:
1. Cote d’Ivoire
2. Cameroon
3. DR Congo
And either:  Swaziland/Sierra Leone/Gambia/Seychelles
Group ‘E’:
1. Ghana
2. Togo
3. Guinea
And either: Madagascar/Uganda/Mauritania/Equatorial Guinea
Group ‘F’:
1.Zambia
2.Cape Verde
3.Niger
And either: Tanzania/Zimbabwe/Mozambique/South Sudan
Group ‘G’:
1.Tunisia
2.Egypt
3.Senegal
And either:  Burundi/Botswana/CAR/Guinea Bissau
Match dates:
Day 1: 5-6 September 2014
Day 2: 10 September 2014
Day 3: 10-11 October 2014
Day 4: 15 October 2014
Day 5: 14-15 November 2014
Day 6: 19 November 2014