In Namibian football circles, the name Gabriel Freyer commands respect. Born at farm Satco outside Karasburg, Freyer grew up in Karasburg, but his childhood life is a little bit of a nomad.
Freyer is the man many of our junior national team stars owe their careers to.
As head coach of the Namibia Schools Sport Union (NSSU) soccer team, and through his own development academy, Freyer built a reputation for spotting raw talent and turning it into a national commodity.
Known as a strict disciplinarian, he moulded generations of young players into the stars we watched and admired over the years.
But not everyone, especially those who got introduced to the beautiful game much later, knows Freyer was a star himself.
Before he was coaching from the sidelines, the former midfielder wore the jerseys of giants African Stars and Orlando Pirates back when they ruled Namibian football.
He belongs to that golden generation of players who brought southern talent to the central stage.
Names like Ambrosius Vyff, Steve Stephanus, Alu Hummel, Norbertus Goraseb, and Killer Kamberipa came from the same region – players considered generational talents from the south.
Declares the former midfield kingpin: “Orlando Pirates was my childhood team. In fact, it was the dream of every young player from the southern regions to play for the Katutura Buccaneers one day.
“I fulfilled my childhood dream to play for Pirates alongside some of the finest players in Namibia. However, it was at Stars, where I was more valued and respected as a player.”
Freyer says that he was pursuit by Oscar ‘Silver Fox’ Mengo to join Stars after the latter saw him playing for Strangers in the Khomasdal Football League (KFL).
“I was now a first year student at the Khomasdal Onderwys Kollege (KOK), which would later become the Windhoek College of Education when I joined Strangers,” he says.
“I was in very good company at Strangers with exceptional players like Bertus Damon, David ‘Donkie’ Majiedt and midfield maestro, Xoab Möller, who was a truly gifted footballer.”
The league was affiliated to the Central Namibia Football Association, which was founded by late Uncle Bobby Sissing, under the banner “No Normal Sport in an Abnormal Society”.
“Oscar (Mengo) told me I was too good to play in the KFL, while he added that playing for Stars, which was a phenomenal side, will give me the exposure I needed,” Freyer explains.
“I must really mention people like Asser Mbai, who was the charming of Stars at the time and Albert ‘Honjo” Tjihero who made my time at Stars very pleasant and enjoyable.”
Freyer won the prestigious Mainstay Cup final with Stars after a controversial solitary goal by Mengo condemned Blue Waters to the runners-up spot.
He also built a very beautiful friendship with all-rounder Bernhard Newman and Asaria ‘Ndjiva’ Kauami, who is considered the best goalkeeper of his generation, during his spell with the Samba Boys.
“Word reached the Pirates hierarchy’s ears that I was spotted in Stars colours. I was told to go see club chairman Isack ||Gowaseb (now late), and my association with Stars came to an end.
“It was not a difficult decision to join Pirates and it was a dream come true to be in the same team with extraordinary players like Ambrosius Vyff, Doc Hadley and Kleintjie |Gaseb,” Freyer relates.
He says that the Goraseb brothers, Norries and Ali also joined Pirates with him at the same time.
Although he enjoyed himself on the football pitch, he didn’t enjoy facing up against the Black Africa duo of David ‘Fellah’ Snewe and Mike ‘Barnes’ Petersen.
“They both had their unique style of play and we didn’t play in the same position but in a game situation, there comes a moment that even a midfielder of one team will face off with the winger or striker of the other team. They were both strong and fast,” he explains.
Freyer says that players like Michael ‘Pine’ Pienaar, Japhet Hellao, Dios Engelbrecht, and Tostao ‘Tsotsi’ Engelbrecht helped him settle in at Pirates on his second homecoming.
“I was enjoying myself at Pirates, but football started to clash with his teaching career. I was doing my internship at the Khomasdal Primary School, and things got a little tough,” he says.
“The afternoon training and camping during weekends made it impossible to continue playing. I had marking work to do after school and lesson preparations during weekends.”
He explains that he didn’t have a choice but to drop the club and game he loved so much to be absolutely focused on his teaching career.
Freyer was also almost not even a teacher.
“After finishing matric in 1979, I was sent to Döbra to go for an internship at the Roman Catholic Printing press which printed the Angelus newsletter at the time,” he says.
“The idea was to send me to Zambia to study journalism. My teachers felt that I should follow my heart and become a journalist because I was very good at story writing.”
But as fate would want it, the Zambia trip didn’t materialise, and he took the teaching option instead.
Freyer, who got married in 1986, ended up coaching the likes of current Brave Warriors coach Collin Benjamin and his predecessor Ricardo Mannetti at Khomasdal primary. Since he was a fitness fanatic at the time.
“I can proudly say that I laid the playing foundation for those young men. They were also joined by the likes of Floris Diergaardt and Danzyl Bruwer,” the retired coach says.
He says that he is surprised at all that Bruwer is a public speaker today because he also used to talk a lot during his school years.
In 1991, Freyer was amongst the very first sports officers who were appointed to take charge of youth and sports matters in the regions. He headed the ||Kharas region.
“I was now based at Keetmanshoop, and Vetumbuavi Veii was the director of sport at the time. Eventually, the hobby of working with schoolchildren became my work,” he says.
“Later the Namibia Schools Sport Union (NSSU) came on board, and we started to seriously coach and rehabilitate school children under the different age groups.”
Freyer dug into coaching, and he got seriously involved in youth football development and even obtained his A licence coaching diploma from the world-renowned Sportschule Hennef in Germany.
He became a permanent presence at the Zone Six Youth Games, which is the biggest southern African competition with different sports codes for the under-20 age groups.
Freyer was amongst the elite football coaches of the NSSU, and his travels also took him to the Helsinki Cup in Finland and the Gothia Cup in Sweden as coach of under-19 national team.
During his time as coach of the NSSU under-19 teams, Freyer who is credited for starting women’s football in the ||Kharas region, helped shape players like Richard Gariseb, Sydney Plaatjies, Paulus Shipanga, Nelson Geingob, Ricardo Mannetti, Floris Diergaardt, who all went on to become prominent players of the Brave Warriors.
Freyer was also the assistant to late coach Seth Orlando Boois when Namibia played Ivory Coast in Abidjan.
After retiring from teaching in 1991, Freyer has been keeping himself busy with farming, and he is no longer involved with football.
Coach on the pitch. Builder off it.
Gabriel Freyer didn’t just find talent. He built Namibia’s football future.
