Ex-goalie quits job as driver to start school football academy

It is very rare to see an infield football player converting to a goalkeeper and go on to become one of the best goalies in the country. Former Brave Warriors goalkeeper Efraim ‘EfoTuvii’ Tjihonge is a living testimony to that.

Born and bred in Soweto, Katutura, Tjihonge started off as an infield while playing the game that he is so passionate about in the rocky streets of Soweto.

“When I was growing up, there was no specific position I played. I was slender, fast and I was powerful and would just pop up from anywhere and blast the ball past the hapless goalie, as they were no match for my powerful shots.

“I started playing organised football for football guru David Goagoseb’s team called Izamaranza Soweto, while still a pupil at People’s Primary School in Katutura. The team became Bombani United when I went to Immanuel Shifidi Secondary School.

“However, my passion for football changed for the better when I went to watch my uncle’s team, Life Ino City – from Otjombinde in the Omaheke region, playing in a pool tournament at the former Windhoek College of Education,” says Tjihonge.

He says the team’s regular goalkeeper was nursing a hip injury and, since he was the youngest player around, his uncle’s manager and Tutu Mundjao asked him to help keep goals.

“It was my very first time playing as a goalkeeper and I was expectedly very nervous and scared at the same time. I had a very huge responsibility to keep the opposition strikers at bay in my very first game as a goalkeeper.

“We managed to scrap past the first match after winning on a penalty shootout, but unfortunately we got knocked out in the second round. I really enjoyed goalkeeping and continued playing in goals for Life Ino City at farm tournaments,” he enthuses.

Just as he was approaching 16, Black Africa hosted a small tournament at the Khomasdal Stadium to scout for new players.

“I must have done something right in that tournament because Ali Akhan, who was BA’s head coach at the time, approached me afterwards and invited me to go and train with his team. It was an exciting moment because BA was known as Namibia’s cup kings.

“Playing for Black Africa did not come on a silver platter. They had also just signed Arnold Subeb, who was the Chief Santos goalkeeper at the time. But with the exceptional goalkeeping skills of Immanuel ‘Sparks’ Gottlieb, I developed very fast,” he says.

He says he did not expect to be the first choice goalkeeper at all because, except for the fact that he joined to learn first because he was still a rookie.

The former Shifidi Secondary School pupil enjoyed a very successful season with Black Africa in 2003, as the country’s most successful team almost won every cup at stake.

The Katutura outfit clinched the BP Top Eight, Hage Geingob Cup, MTC Cup and the NFA Cup while just falling short of annexing the league.

Tjihonge, whose motto in life is that nothing comes easy in life, therefore, work hard for it, played for the under-17, u20 and u23 junior national teams during his earlier days, before he was called up to the senior team by his 20th birthday.

He made his u17 team debut against the visiting Westphalia regional team from Germany at Tsumeb in 2002, while he made his introduction to the under-20 side during the Cosafa Cup in Durban, South Africa, in the same year.

“I started to feel the real taste of international football when we engaged a star-studded South African u23 side in a two-legged preliminary round. We came up against Kaizer Chiefs legend Itumelang Khune and Robin Johannes of Sundowns.

“We really held our own against the South Africans, going down 1-0 score in the first leg in Durban before we forced them to a famous 1-1 draw at the Sam Nujoma Stadium in the return leg, only to bow out 2-1 on aggregate,” he says excitedly.

Tjihonge describes his penalty save against former Tigers prolific scorer Nelson Dicky Akwenye as his most exciting moment in a Black Africa jersey.

The two sides were locked 0-0 in the NFA Cup semi-final tie played at the Khomasdal Stadium before he made three saves during shoot-out, including Akwenye’s kick.

He also speaks highly about the final match against a star-studded Ramblers who had football giants like Quinton ‘Magic’ Jacobs, the late Victor Helu, Florence Diergardt and a rampant Rudy Louw unleashed fierce bullets from the different ankles.

“Despite the intimidating pool of players they had, I managed to keep a clean sheet only for them to claim the cup after a penalty shoot-ou. You can’t be lucky all the time, I guess.”

His performance against the two city giants interested renowned player agent Colin April, who invited him, together with Hartman Toromba and Costa Kheiseb, to go for trials with South African Premier Soccer League team Black Leopards in Venda.

The retired goalkeeper married Renathe Tjihonge in 2016 and the couple is blessed with four beautiful children (one boy and three girls).

Tjihonge, who started as a driver at Windhoek Gymnasium Private School, is now running the football development academy of the schools.

“I just worked into the principal’s office and told her that I’m not a driver anymore after driving for six years and I asked if we could add football to the schools sport codes. The school only had athletics, hockey, netball and rugby at the time.

“She approved and I roped in Sylvester Murangi, who was previously the sports coordinator of the school, to assist me in setting an age-group structure. We had the full support of principal Colette Riekert as well as the school management,” he says.

The u19 side of the school raised eyebrows when they, together with another academy from Otjiwarongo, reached the final of the coveted Hopsol tournament.

Tjihonge, who says he does not miss playing football, advises aspiring football players never to listen to negative criticism from other people and to just stick to the goals they have set themselves.

“I’ve derived a lot of positive energy from current Brave Warriors coach Collin Benjamin’s motto ‘Trust the Process’. I don’t know if people read things to understand or just read for the sake of reading. It means Collin is not going to give up.

“People are currently criticising his team structure, but as a principled person that he is, he is going to continue doing things his own way until he has achieved whatever goals he has set. If you achieve something people will always talk.”