Carlos Kambaekwa
14 November 2008
column
Aged 15 and barely out of his pair of shorts, Atanasius "Steps" Nickel thought 1969 would be the year when he would make a breakthrough in professional football, but this was not to be.
Such was his natural skill with the ball that the legendary Percy "Chippa" Moloi did not need a second invitation to draft the barefoot left-footed youngster into the star-studded Etosha Lions lineup together with childhood buddy Hendrik "Hennie" Dawid.
"As youngsters, we used to train with Etosha Lions when the team was coached and trained by Moloi, who came to South West Africa from Johannesburg at the invitation of the late Herbert Conradie," he says.
Moloi was brought to the Copper Town to take Etosha Lions through the ropes prior to what was billed a historic club tournament that was to have taken place in Luanda, Angola - but the tour never materialized as money sponsored by the mine for the purpose of the tournament found its way into some club officials' back pockets.
Steps' love for the beautiful game started at the tender age of 14 in his home town Tsumeb, when he kicked tennis balls and piled up plastic collections in the dusty streets of Nomtsoub alongside other talented youngsters.
"I lived for football and would play until mama calls way after darkness has set in. I played with Hendrik Dawids, Anton 'Orlando' Damaseb and Pius 'Garrincha' Eigowab and we would join practice sessions with Etosha Lions where we rubbed shoulders with great footballers such as Eliphas Sabatha, Engelhard Gariseb, Jakes Khiba, Willem Siku, Daniel Kubas and Kahunguriva Kandjira."
His breakthrough in top-flight football came in 1968 when the legendary Orlando Pirates schemer came to South West Africa at the invitation of the late football administrator Herbert Conradie.
"Chippa spotted us during one of the training sessions and decided there and then that Hendrik and I were good enough to don the green and orange colours of Etosha Lions.
"We learned a lot from Chippa as he would teach us when to release the ball and when and where to dribble. He also taught the basic technique of shooting, positioning and how to convert set pieces into goals," recalls the former dribbling wizard.
Etosha Lions organized a tournament in Tsumeb where the cream of the country converged and the Lions of the north were pitted against Swakopmund's exciting outfit Atlanta Chiefs in their opening match.
"I will never forget that match and those who were lucky enough to witness that encounter are still talking about that match in full detail, up to this day. Chiefs had very good players such as Ruby Kamulu, Herman 'Pele' Blaschke, Alpheus Gaweseb and Kaningandu."
Steps played alongside Moloi and managed to put his name on the score sheet in his team's 3-1 win over the coastal outfit.
Although it was a knockout tournament - the crowd requested an encore and the match was replayed as a friendly with Pele, Ruby and Kaningandu swapping sides with Chippa and Steps - much to the joy of the crowd who enjoyed every moment of the encounter.
Chippa invited young Steps and Hendrik for trials in South Africa but the pair's parents would have none of it, because they felt and rightly so, the boys were hopelessly too young to be exposed to the tough rigours of life in Jozi.
The failed tour to Angola angered Chippa after an exchange of ugly words with management, but the players threw their weight behind Moloi, who changed the club's name from Etosha Lions to Chief Santos in protest of management's failure to get the Angolan tour off the ground.
Santos played two farewell games for Moloi in Windhoek against Rocco Swallows and Pirates (Dolam) at the old Katutura Stadium with the late Cross Manetti denying Moloi a goal after saving the South African's weakly taken penalty to send the crowd into raptures.
"After that Santos became a major force in domestic football, and we always had the upper hand against teams from the north and the likes of Red Bees, Rangers, Indian Pirates and Poison Arrows always played second fiddle to us in those years.
"As the years went by - the old guard started to phase out and we recruited several new faces led by Frans 'Archie' Ochurub, from Eleven Brothers, Celle Auchumeb, Hendrik 'Doc' Hadley, Stanislou 'Kapapi' Ochurub, Benzel Khotiseb, Scara Goagoseb, George 'Bandike' Ochurub and Nangi Nickel."
Steps undoubtedly believes that was the best squad Santos has ever assembled in its existence.
"We used to give the Windhoek based teams a good run for their money, but we somehow always came unstuck against Orlando Pirates, because they had this bulky centre back going by the name of Isaac 'Hoops' Gariseb who took no prisoners. In real fact, he was not a footballer, he was rough and reckless with his ill timed bicycle kicks," recalls Steps.
"It always gave me great pleasure to play against the Katutura big four - Orlando Pirates, African Stars, Black Africa and Tigers. They had very good players like Gustav Bassieman-Jimy Naruseb, Michael 'Ou Pine' Pienaar senior, Ismael 'Lemmy' Narib, Bullet Hansen, Oscar 'Silver Fox' Mengo, Jusatus 'Kaika' Kuzee, Bethuel 'Ace' Tjirera, Albert Tjihero, Benjamin 'Spokes' Tibinyane, Albert Louw, Nandos Mbako and Mentos Hipondoka."
The 54-year-old former dribbling wizard is amongst a rare breed of footballers who managed to escape the hardships of life, and is today a successful businessman in his home town where he runs a night club and pub.
He had stints with Khomasdal-based Atlanta Chiefs under the leadership of Bobby Sissing where he played as guest player and was amongst the cream of local footballers who were recruited to turn out for the star-studded Katutura outfit Poison Cobra.
Steps was a valuable member of the South West Africa Invitation team that toured Kimberly where they narrowly lost through Lazarus Shiwkambi's own goal.
"In 1974 we were invited to play a friendly match against Sport Klub Windhoek (SKW) in Windhoek - a match which we won 3 -1. We stayed at the Katutura Guest House and were determined to show the white boys the finer points of the beautiful game."
He reckons Mohammed "Slice" Ouseb and Gerros "the Bomber" Uri-Khob are the only players from the current crop who could have made it into the all conquering Santos squad of the 70's.
"Modern footballers don't understand the concept of football and lack initiative because they play like robots. During our time, we attracted more people to our training sessions than what Santos would gather at a league or cup match these days."
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