FORMER Tigers and Brave Warriors winger Frans Ananias has come a long way. He attended Opawa Junior Secondary and Otjikoto Secondary School as Tsumeb to establish himself in the star-studded Tigers team.
But the journey started at the Donkerhoek-based first-division outfit African Blizzards, which served as a feeding team for Tigers – one of a few ever-present members of the Namibian Premier League.
“Strangely enough I always supported Young Ones. I was absolutely in awe of the Khomasdal outfit’s playing style and strong winning mentality.
“But as things didn’t work out during my time at Young Ones, I swallowed my pride and went on to join the Ingweinyama, where I played all my football until retirement. I must say it is an honour playing for the Tigers,” Ananias says.
The only regret that the slender-built star has is that he never won the league with the popular blue-and-white outfit, but he won some silverware with the Donkerhoek Boys in the form of two NFA Cups and the Metropolitan Shield.
Tigers won the NFA Cup in 1995 after beating Black Africa 1-0 in the final, and that year Ananias also finished as Tigers’ top scorer of the season with 27 goals.
However, the sporting moment the matriculant from Cosmos High School would cherish for the rest of his life came after he captained the Katutura giants to a cup double in 1996.
Tigers annexed their second NFA Cup and maiden Metropolitan Shield in 1996.
They retained their NFA Cup after they secured a well-deserved 2-1 win over the more experienced African Stars, while the Metropolitan Shield came courtesy of a hard-fought 1-0 victory over the star-studded Okahandja outfit Liverpool.
Tigers’ superiority in the NFA Cup also took them on an African sojourn, first going to play in the CAF Winners Cup and falling to AC Sodigraf of the Democratic Republic of Congo in the second round in 1996, and Roma Rovers in Lesotho 1997.
“I became an integral part of the senior national team right from when we started participating in the regional Cosafa Castle Cup, including the historic first win over Bafana Bafana in Windhoek, as well as the second, also in the same competition.
“I’ve been to Gabon where we qualified for the 98 Africa Nations Cup finals in 1997. I even had the unenviable task to mark Bafana Bafana electrifying winger Helman Mkhalele in our final group match at the Afcon in Ouagadougou, in Burkina Faso,” he says.
The retired winger considers the Brave Warriors 2-0 win against Mozambique and the 1-0 defeat of Kenya, both World Cup qualifiers played at Independence Stadium, as two of his best matches in the senior national team jersey.
But playing for the national team was nothing new for the winger after he was selected for the pre-independence under-15 side that went to participate in Gqeberha, South Africa, in 1987.
Ananias also enjoyed a three-year stint with FC Penzberg in the lower divisions of Germany.
The former Mandume Primary School pupil wants to be remembered as a humble and quiet national team player with a deadly left foot, who took football seriously.
WORK, FAMILY
Ananias has two children and has been employed as a medical courier by pathology service PathCare Namibia for the past 10 years.
“My job requires me to deliver the test results of patients to doctors at hospitals and clinics from our laboratories. It is also my duty to collect medical specimen from healthcare centres around the city and take them to our laboratory.”
The retired star says his job can be demanding at times, and adds that time is a very important commodity when it comes to delivering and fetching test results.
“You have to meet deadlines because the lives of patients depend on fast and swift service. Everything we do is urgent. The picking up and dropping off of test samples and results is crucial.
“One has to be careful also not to mix the samples up, because any mistake could end with regrets. We have a lot of sick people now, especially since the dawn of the coronavirus, so there is a lot of movement between the healthcare centres and our laboratories,” he says.
FULL CIRCLE
Ananias says his football career went full circle, from club to junior national team to international football.
“What more could I have hoped for? I have played football at all levels and even had a short stint in Germany – albeit with a team in the lower divisions. I may have never won the league with Tigers, but I am happy with the cups I have managed to win at club level,” he says.
Ananias, who also has a short history as Tigers coach after retirement, is currently a member of the popular Aweh Aweh FC, a team made up of former Brave Warriors and premier league players.
With no sponsor, the players cover all the expenses of the team.
The club is renowned for its free football clinics they stage to young players from underprivileged backgrounds, especially in rural areas.
The members of the team, which plays in the social league, also donate old clothes to the places they visit.
Ananias’ advice for young players is to be disciplined and hard-working.
