Pointed lessons from the CLASS of 2008

Efforts to recognise and celebrate national sports heroes of the past is always welcome and thus most of us were pleasantly surprised that MTC decided to give players that were part of the Brave Warriors team that played at the 1998 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) a token of appreciation.

This was all good and dandy, but I couldn’t help wondering whether the same courtesy will ever be given to the team that qualified for the 2008 AFCON.

It seems that team’s achievement has been totally forgotten, much like most of the players that donned the Brave Warriors colours during that event, which was held in Ghana.

That the team qualified for the event as winners of a group, which featured countries like DR Congo, Libya and Ethiopia is great but what is even more remarkable was that 12 of the final squad members that eventually played in the tournament were 23 years and younger.

This should have been the foundation on which the next line of Brave Warriors stars was built on - however, a quick look at those players will reveal that most of them were ignored after the event and have not featured in any of the recent teams.

Gottlieb Nakuta, for example, was only 19 years old when he played at that AFCON, the same as Muna Katupose and Lazarus Kaimbi, but the latter only made his return to national duty at the end of last year while the former two no longer feature.

Namibia’s two-goal hero at that tournament, Brian Brendell, who was only 21 at the time, has never come close to featuring for the national team in the aftermath of that event.

The same can be said about Pineas Jacob, Wycliffe Kambonde and Letu Shatimuene.

What very few people remember is that the Class of 98 was disbanded without much fanfare in the past, while the same fate seemed to have befallen the Class of 2008.

Now, we are on the verge of entering another successful phase with the Brave Warriors well on their way to becoming a force.

My question, though, is will we also be asking what happened to the team in a few years?