Ode to loyalist Kaskas Angula

It’s true there is a thin line between life and death.

News about the death of former footballer Phillemon Angula, popularly known as Kaskas, hit me like a fist in the face.

Not that I considered him immortal or some sort of a kanniedood, but just because the last time I spoke to him he was still his usual upbeat self.

Kaskas didn’t give me the slightest hint that he was unwell as he asked me about the picture I took of him and his son and daughter during last year’s Hage Geingob Challenge at which he featured for Namibia against the South African Legends.

My childhood friend Festus ‘Mbongoro’ David, who saw Kaskas at Ondangwa a few days before his unexpected death, also said that he appeared to be in good shape.

I first came to know Kaskas during his playing days with Oshakati City during my days as the sport editor of The Namibian.

Apart from his apparent football skills, I immediately liked the young man because of the humble and respectful manner in which he greeted me for the first time.

Considering that we also shared the same surname, Kaskas started calling me “big brother” and I called him “my little brother”.

Our bond remained strong throughout the years as I saw him transforming from a club player into an international star, until recently when he switched to coaching.

Kaskas was not a player that goalkeepers and defenders liked to be around their 18 area when they were defending corner-kicks and free-kicks against his team.

He could leap very high, which is something he gained during his basketball playing days.

FEARED STRIKER

The former Brave Warriors star was one of the deadliest headers of the ball in the country during his heyday and the fact that he was also capable of shooting with both feet made him a feared striker.

Kaskas brought a new dimension into every team he played for with his aerial dominance.

It didn’t surprise me at all when the former Mweshipandeka School Secondary pupil became a successful football coach because of his discipline and commitment he showed as a player.

He was a Caf C Licence football coaching badge holder.

I have always maintained that if there was ever a prize to be won in football for loyalty, Kaskas would have been a clearcut favourite to take the award home.

Kaskas was one of the most in-demand strikers in the country during his close-to-a-decade involvement with Oshakati City in the Punyu Northern First Division.

But despite the lucrative offers he received from the country’s so-called club teams, he vowed to first help City gain promotion to the premier league before he could consider leaving them.

His loyalty to City also led him to miss out on the chance to play for the national under-20 side after the national team selectors told him he lacked premier league experience.

The dreadlocked star, who returned to Namibia from exile in 1991, kept his promise to stay with City until they gained promotion to the country’s top league and his wish was eventually fulfilled in 1997 when they were promoted to the Namibia Premier League.

“Winning promotion with City to the country’s top league was a dream come true for me. It may have taken such a while, but I was happy that all the insults I received from some quarters that I was wasting my time playing in the lower division were not in vain.

“Unfortuntely I only played a season with City in the premier league before I joined Blue Waters and relocated to Walvis Bay. City didn’t honour their part of the deal, what they would do for me if I help the club gain promotion,” Kaskas said in a recent interview.

COLOURFUL YOUTH

The likeable Rastafarian had a very colourful youth during his time in exile.

“I learnt to become a man in the Swapo camps in Angola and Zambia. I played football with and against the soldiers who were much older than me in the camps, especially in Lubango. They really loved me there and I was the little star of the camp.

“There we only had one meal a day, but because I was such an exceptional little talent I was invited by the people who had houses at the camp to go eat supper with them. We also played against our brothers from the ANC, and it was so much fun,” he said at the time.

Kaskas did not only win the interest of local teams, but his immense talent also attracted the interest of South African football giants Kaizer Chiefs, something he only discovered after leaving Oshakati City, whose management never bothered to tell him at the time.

Chiefs showed interest once again while he was with Blue Waters in 1998 and he travelled to Windhoek with the club’s former chairman, Hendrick Davids, for a planned meeting with representatives of the Soweto giants, but they travelled back to Walvis Bay the next day.

He said he didn’t know what happened during the negotiations, because Davids was handling the matter.

He went back to City the following year.

Despite his efforts on the pitch, Kaskas has never won the premier league, the closest he came was with City in 2007 when they finished runners-up to his former club, Civics.

However, he redeemed himself by winning the coveted The Namibian Newspaper Cup, hosted by Keetmanshoop, as the head coach of the Oshana region during that same year.

The first time Kaskas left the country quietly he went into exile and returned in 1991.

We will never see him at our football stadiums again, but his legacy will certainly live on in Namibian football fans for years to come.