Sky Abrahams: from footballer to financial adviser

Former Ramblers and junior national team goalkeeper, Gerhard ‘Sky’Abrahams, is among the rare footballers who quit football and its fame for a lecture room at a university, securing himself a comfortable future.

Abrahams was still in his prime at 29, playing regularly for Ramblers, when he decided to swap his football boots for the lecture room in 2009.

“On top of the fame throughout my playing days, I always stayed a humble professional and I was someone who respected the game. But there came a time when I decided to go back to school,” Abrahams says.

“Football is a very famous game in our country but our game isn’t professional so there is nothing much to take home. I thought about life after football and I decided to go back to school. I have neglected my schoolwork by travelling too much with the Brave Warriors.”

He says he had the potential to continue playing but decided to enrol himself at the then Polytechnic of Namibia, now the Namibia University of Science and Technology, to study finance.

Although he was raised by his aunt in Windhoek from the age of three, Abrahams was born at Omusimboti village near Oshakati in the Oshana region.

“Sometimes I feel a little sad that I quit football too soon because I still had a few good playing years left in me. I never fulfiled my childhood dream of playing for the senior national team although I was a regular for the under-23 team,” Abrahams says.

“It’s not like I was not called up to the national team. I have been an understudy for Danzyl Bruwer, who was the regular for the Brave Warriors, but I never got the chance to play. Sometimes you have to be content that the other person is better than you.”

Abrahams’ started as a defensive midfielder for the all-conquering u10 team at Mandume Junior Primary School. He didn’t win much at Namutoni Senior Primary School, which didn’t have a formidable football team.

He continued playing defender at Immanuel Shifidi Secondary School until his matric year, when he attended a Khomas Rovers (formerly Firestone) training session in 1995.

“I was asked to play goalkeeper and I think that I even surprised myself how things turned out. Everybody was happy with my performance. I was particularly encouraged by uncle Lukas Nanyemba to continue practicing with them,” Abrahams explains.

“I started to like my new role as goalkeeper and in a blink of an eye, I became Rovers number one goalkeeper and we played in the Khomas First Division where I was spotted by Mario Carera, who persuaded me to join his club, African Latinos.”

Abrahams only spent one season with Latinos before the team merged with Okahandja outfit Liverpool, who were playing in the Namibian Premier League at the time. He spent 1997 at Liverpool before he trekked to Civics, where he spent 1998 and 1999.

“It was never really my wish to play for Liverpool but I didn’t have much of a choice because my former team, Latinos, merged with them and they took some of the best players. I was competing with Nelson Mbako for the goalie spot at Liverpool,” he says.

“I started playing seriously when I joined Civics and unfortunately, I did not win anything with them. But at least I was noticed by the junior national team selectors. I played for the under-20swith Liverpool and the under-23 with Civics and Ramblers.”

Abrahams was called up to the Brave Warriors after the team returned from the 1998 Africa Cup of Nations. The coaches decided to add new faces to the team while some of the older players phased out.

The former goalkeeper was keeping goals for the under-23s, also known as the Olympic Team, while he was an understudy for Bruwer.

“I played my best football at Ramblers and I really enjoyed every minute of my stay there. I had wonderful teammates and there was a sound atmosphere between the players and the management, which made us play our lungs out,” Abrahams notes.

“Despite the wonderful atmosphere and the excellent coach Ali Akhana, there was no silverware to show off, which is really a shame. But we almost made a clean sweep at the NPL Awards in 2000 during a season when we finished fourth on the log.

“Team captain Michael ‘Lazizi’ Pienaar was named player of the year, coach Akhan was coach of the year while our club was the team of the year.”

Abrahams, who characterises his playing style to agility, bravery and the ability to read the game, describes himself as disciplined and reliable.

“I would say that I was a very disciplined and reliable goalie. For me, playing football was not only for fame but I played for the success of my team. A good quality that I also had was being able to organise my defence in order to make it difficult to score against us.

“I was very agile and fleet-footed so it was not easy to score against me. I was particularly good when it came to saving penalty shots. If we were playing a cup game and we went to a penalty shoot-out, my teammates knew that we were going through.”

Besides football, Abrahams was also a prominent athlete at school and he called the shots in the 100m and 200m sprints. His nickname, ‘Sky’, is derived from the Nissan Skyline, a car his schoolmates said he was as fast as.

The retired star, who was benched when the Brave Warriors played to a 1-1 draw in Lusaka against Zambia during a Cosafa Cup encounter, has sweet memories during his years with the junior national team, particularly the under-23s.

“My national team football journey actually started with the under-14s when we played against our South African counterparts. I can remember other retired stars like Paulus ‘Wire’ Shipanga and Rudy Louw being part of our team,” Abraham says.

“I also played for the under-17 side against a team from the Westphalia region of Germany. I even captained the under-20 team against Tanzania. My best moment was when we drew 0-0 with Mozambique and went on to draw 3-3 in Maputo with them during an Olympic qualifier.”

Abrahams, who is self-employed, is a father of one son.

“I work on my own. I am a certified financial planner and I own a company called SA Consultants & Insurance Brokers. We are investment advisers and we also assist with retirement planning, while giving financial wellness programmes,” he says.

“With financial wellness programmes, we teach people to work with money. We basically teach clients how to budget and we also teach them debt management. We go as far as to teach people to draw up their wills and estate planning.”

His advice to young goalkeepers?

“If today’s goalkeepers want to make a bigger impact in their team, they must have a big heart, be brave and respect the game, and discipline will follow automatically. No matter how good you are, if you don’t have discipline, aren’t brave or show respect, you won’t go far,”Abraham advises.

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