Education first, former goalie says 

Brave, focussed and disciplined is how former midfield kingpin Eric ‘Master-Blaster’ Quest describes retired goalkeeper Onkgopotse ‘Tiro’ Tlhabanello.

Tlhabanello was Quest’s former teammate at Black Africa.

“He [Thlabanello] came to Black Africa as a young goalkeeper, and he was the understudy of our first-choice goalie, Ronnie Kanalelo.

“He knew he faced a mammoth task replacing Ronnie, who was also the number one of the national team at the time,” Quest says.

“Tiro benefited immensely from Ronnie’s experience, because he was still young and eager to learn, and most importantly, he was patient to wait for his chance.

“Tiro was brave, focused and disciplined, and it isn’t by chance that he went on to play for his country at senior level.”

Tlhabanello has come a long way from the days when he was tapping a tennis ball on the stoep of Bet-El Primary School at Katutura’s Gemengde Lokasie.

“I was a skilful outfield player. I played as an attacking midfielder for the under-16 team of Centaurus Secondary School. One day the goalkeeper of the under-19 team didn’t pitch, and I volunteered to keep goals – that was the day Tiro the goalie was born,” he says.

“I was comfortable between the goals, and I had excellent hand-eye coordination, because I was also playing basketball at school.”

The beanpole goaltender started playing in goals for his school’s under-19 team since that day and it was not really a difficult decision to convert Thlabanello to a goalkeeper.

What also made Tlhabanello stand out from the rest was the fact that he was comfortable with the ball at both feet.

Tlhabanello was scouted by Ramblers to join the former Namibian Premier League outfit, and it only took a good showing against his boyhood team Black Africa (BA) to convince their leadership to ask his mother’s permission to sign the promising youngster.

“It was an exciting moment and a dream come true for me to play for BA, which is actually a team supported by my entire family, including myself. I knew the day would eventually come when I would wear the famous black-and-red jersey, but I didn’t expect it to happen so soon.

“It was never easy to break into the star-studded team, and I had to wait three good years before I got my chance after the first-choice goalie, Ronnie Kanalelo, who also the Brave Warriors number one, joined Mamelodi Sundowns in South Africa,” Thlabanello says.

Playing for BA always came with the incentive for a player to win major trophies, and it was no different for the talented young goalkeeper, who savoured the moment he pulled his first league championship medal over his neck.

“Black Africa was very competitive at the time and it was surrounded by people who were hellbent on success. It was in the DNA of the players, the technical team and the team management to always be on the winning side,” Thlabanello says.

“I was in my element when we won the league. I mean, it is every footballer’s dream to win the league, but it is not always guaranteed. Needless to say, there are thousands of footballers out there who finished their careers without even having a sniff at the league trophy.”

The goaltender also added the Metropolitan Life Cup to his trophy successes before he joined Civics, which were the emerging champions of Namibian football at the time.

He says joining the Bethlehem outfit was inevitable at the time because they were the in-thing in local football, and they had assembled a formidable squad which German owner Helmuth Shernovsky took on a European tour.

“Civics were playing the money game, and every talented player wanted to be part of the highly ambitious and exciting project of Shernovsky, who took Namibian football to another level with the professional set-up he put in place at Civics,” Tlhabanello says.

It was inevitable that he would be spotted by the junior national team selectors, who drafted him into the under-19 team that went to compete at the Helsinki Cup in Finland while still a schoolboy at Centaurus.

The former 800m runner was also called up to the under-23 team that went to engage their South African counterparts, but had to play second fiddle to Kanalelo once again, who was drafted into the team as one of the three overaged players.

“I received my chance to play for the senior national team after a stand-off between the players and the Namibian Football Association. The players decided they were not going to play unless their demands to the controlling body were not met,” he says.

“It so happened that I was called up and my very first assignment was against Egypt in Cairo, where the experienced players were handed a 7-1 humiliation in a previous encounter.

“But we stood our ground and only conceded a dying minute goal to lose by an odd goal.”

Tlhabanello describes that day as the most memorable moment of his entire football career.

WORK, FAMILY

The retired footballer, who is currently employed by MTC Namibia, married wife Chriszelda in 2005.

“I’ve been with MTC for the past 10 years. I was previously with FNB Namibia for the longest I can remember. At MTC I am in the key accounts department. I am an executive there.

“I am the go-to person if a business client wants to do any renewals,” he says.

The former goalkeeper is back with Ramblers, where he has been coaching in the football academy for the past 11 years.

Tlhabanello says his dream is to start his own goalkeeper coaching academy.

He has coached a few teams in premier league before, like Tigers, African Stars and the Namibian team at the Africa Cup of Nations Futsal Championships in Morocco this year.

His advice to young players is: “Football can be a career, but work on your education first. Get your degree, get your diploma then you can work on your football career.”