Tribute to a true football legend

PECKA SEMBA WRITES:

I have learnt about the passing on of one of Namibia football’s greatest personalities, Selle Augumeb.

I was a learner at St. Joseph Roman Catholic Mission School (Döbra) and football (soccer) was the in-thing and was played at this school as if it was going out of fashion. Here I first heard about a deadly striker going by the name Selle, playing for a Tsumeb based team called Chief Santos. We also had a hostel team going by the name Chief Santos.

Many of us used “nick names” of established national and international players and the name Selle featured very much and was a sought-after nick name. We occasionally quarreled or even fought about who the bearer of this name should be.

At Döbra then, we had our own soccer heroes atlike Albert Tjihero, Max Johnson, Stoe Damaseb, George Martin, Laurentius Urikhob, Kandas Paulino and the list is endless, but I was also to learn that Selle was actually a student at Döbra before I was enrolled there.

In those days, we would flock to the corrugated iron surrounded Katutura Stadium and pay twenty cents to witness the cream de la cream of Namibian football stars of yester year. It was at a soccer tournament there that I saw Selle Augumeb.

He was always up there amongst the best on display during a particular tournament. He would make goal scoring look so easy, and he went past defenders as if they were frozen. He had it all. Tactical, technical awareness and a dominating self-believe.

Great was our excitement as young learners and soccer fans when Selle was part of the Black Eleven squad who was partly to train at Döbra school in preparation for their historic match against a selected White Eleven squad. We virtually “hanged on their lips” when they taught us their soccer journeys and freely mingled with us.

During training sessions Selle would rattle the net at will, much to our excitement of the skills at display. He was calm and collected and hardly showed any worries about the most important match of his life which was eminent.

I was lucky when my late mom, Justine Kamukuenjandje took me to this match on that Saturday afternoon and I can vividly recall how the Black Eleven ran circles around their opponents. Amongst the standout players that day was Selle Augumeb. He took to the occasion like a duck to water and simplified the game, while at the same time taking it to the highest of levels.

In one match Selle was part of three men attacking frontline with Crooks Casper and Peter Joseph Damaseb (Pele). The entire trio have now passed on. The mercurial Hannes Louw was pulling the strings in midfield. Playing against arguably the most feared Orlando Pirates team of those years in a semi-final match, it ended in a stalemate, and the match had to be replayed early the next morning.

The following day, a Selle Augumeb inspired team beat Pirates very easily with three goals to none. They went on to beat Black Africa in the final, Selle again showing his experience by making the game look easy, in a huge upset.

In later years I would play with the late Chris Amakali, Naftalie Naobeb, Gabriel Wennerth and many others from Tsumeb and they would glorify the name Selle as a cult hero who inspired them to become top footballers in their own right. To them the mention of the name Selle was synonymous with Chief Santos Football Club, not only as a football club, but as an institution which Selle contributed and helped build through the years, perhaps more than any other single individual.

It will, in my opinion, be a fitting and lasting tribute if the powers that be in the Copper Town give due recognition to the contributions of Sagarias Selle Augumeb by immortalising his name and name a street or prominent land mark after this greatest of greats.

Kai aios Omes. !Gâise du i re. ?Khîb !nâ sâ re Au Selle.