His receding hairline belied an exuberance that only youth could illuminate. Not that you would catch a proper glimpse of it in the dimly lit Mandela National Stadium. Geoffrey Serunkuma had etched his name on the scoresheet, but, with Burkina Faso having mustered two goals of their own, basking in the afterglow of his success was not an option. It didn't matter that the striker had won a penalty that Simon Masaba (later to age in inverse and take on the name Simeon Massa) converted with aplomb to get the hosts back on terms.
Mohammed Abbas needed to rejig his attack to force a winner, and so Geoffrey Massa's Cranes career started. It was damp and windy, Uganda in October. Playing under the lights only exacerbated the chilly conditions. The conditions initially cast a chill over Massa as seen in the vivid, unsettling ease with which he went about business. But he grew in confidence with each passing minute and was soon doing a Forrest Gump impression. Eventually, what we got to witness on that night of October 8th in 2005 was the flowering of an attribute that would make Massa devastatingly effective to the point of being a fearsome sight -- tremendous pace to burn.
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