Spotlight On: Joslin Kamatuka

African Stars winger Joslin Kamatuka has been one of the standout players in this season’s Namibia Premier League campaign and has played a major role in Stars’ impressive run, which sees them leading the log by six points with five matches to go.

After 25 matches he is Stars’ leading goal scorer with eight goals, while his speed and attacking skills have tormented opposing defences and contributed to numerous victories.

His fine form has not gone unnoticed and he was recently called up to the Brave Warriors squad for the first time and made his international debut in a friendly against Ghana last month.

The Namibian Sport’s Helge Schutz spoke to Kamatuka about his life and soccer career, and about his ambitions in life and soccer.

When did you start playing soccer?

I started playing when I was nine years old in Grade 3 at Delta School Windhoek. I did well from the start and was the player of the year at the school, so from then on I decided I’d continue playing soccer and it has been a passion of mine ever since. The following year I was the top goalscorer while I also won some individual awards at various tournaments.

I went on to Delta Secondary School, but there were a lot of good players and I was quite small compared to the other players so I wasn’t a star player in high school. I also used to play and practise with my older brother Shaun Kamatuka who went on to play for SKW and African Stars.

I later joined the Civics Academy and a lot of the players who are in the Premier League now played there at the time. Christi Guruseb was our coach – he helped me a lot as well as Willem Kapukare who also played a role in my career. He coached a City of Windhoek team that I made, when we competed at a Mini World Cup in Germany in 2006.

How did your soccer career start?

I was playing for Young Ones in the Second Division and then in 2010, after I finished matric, I went for trials with SKW and they signed me up. It was tough playing in the Premier League so I wasn’t a regular player and I mostly came on as a substitute. Then in my second season with SKW it went better because I started getting used to the Premier League level and I became a regular player for them.

I was there for a season and a half and then I decided to go to Cape Town to study but actually I just wanted to go there to play soccer. So I went to the College of Cape Town to study business management and I started playing for UCT’s varsity team at first.

The assistant coach of Santos saw me playing a match and invited me for trials but although I think I did well, nothing came of that. He asked me if I had played for my country, so I said no, and then I didn’t hear from him again.

That’s why I decided to rather come back to Namibia and transfer my studies to Unam so that I can join a team here. I sms’d African Stars’ coach Woody (Jacobs) because I already knew that if I came back I only wanted to play for African Stars. So he invited me for trials which were successful, so I signed a contract and joined them at the start of the 2013/14 season.

How did it go with Stars?

My first season with Stars started off well – I scored a goal in our first match against Pirates, and was also man of the match. But towards the end of the first round I injured myself badly, I sprained a ligament in my knee, which put me out for the rest of the season. It was quite tough, because I had set goals for myself that I wanted to achieve and now I had to wait longer for that.

I just continued working on my fitness and strengthening my knees and I also want to thank Donna Medic because they really helped a lot with my injury.

This season has been completely different. I stopped doing things that I used to do and my private life changed completely. I stopped socialising because I realised that if I wanted to achieve something, I needed to separate myself from them.

If you want to achieve something you need to do it on your own, that’s what I believe in – nobody will help you become successful, unless you do it yourself. So to make it, you have to do it on your own. I’ve been pushing myself hard and every morning during the week I gym by myself to help me achieve my goals.

How did it feel when you were called up to the Brave Warriors squad?

It was a really great feeling, I was really happy and proud of myself. That was just the beginning though, that was one of my targets and I still have to reach other targets that I have set for myself.

The experience was really good, playing in Ghana, it was also my first time there so I had to adapt to the conditions but I adapted quite well. I went on as a substitute for the last 20 minutes and it was a good experience although the tempo was very high.

I had a chance to score in the final minutes, but their goalie managed to push the ball out of my path. We also wasted a lot of chances in the first half. We dominated the whole game and Ghana hardly had one chance and just scored from a deflected shot. But it shows that if you don’t take your chances you won’t win.

One on One with Joslin Kamatuka

Birth date and place:

22 July 1991, Windhoek.

Schools:

Who inspired you?

My father. We always watched soccer together, he inspired me a lot and we also played together in the garden. He has always been hardworking and encouraged us to do well at school. Education is very important for him.

Which soccer player did you look up to?

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