Sports Extra

Challenge of being Ngalande

It is not every African boy that the international press, such as the BBC, glorifies as the next Samuel Eto’o.

Medium height, level-headed, fluent in English, a fast Spanish learner, a star performer with top MSCE grades, Robin Ngalande is one of those gems that come once in every decade.

You know when Malawi fans have been touched by a star when they leave the Kamuzu Stadium with a take-home football message rolling on their tongues.

They surely did after having their first home sight of Ngalande playing in last week’s 1-1 draw with Nigeria and 2-0 win over Chad on Saturday.

Nobody can pretend that Ngalande is the immediate answer to the Flames’ impotence upfront, but few would argue that the Flames future lies in this quick-heeled boy who appears flying when with the ball.

Most players can play quick one-twos, but it is the manner of frequency that distinguishes your everyday footballer from an extraordinary player. Every player can juggle the ball, but it is the ease of execution that separates ordinary from the extraordinary.

And they say decision-making with the ball, like good wine, becomes better with age in football, but for Ngalande, he decides on whether to shoot, control or pass the ball in split seconds as if it were the easiest thing to do.

A resistant man when it comes to giving kids a run in his team, Flames coach Kinnah Phiri summed up Ngalande’s talent, saying: “You can see a lot of maturity in him and he is very intelligent on the ball.”

On Saturday, the former Civo United boy made what should have been an earlier goal when his elegant flick/pass was handled by a Chad defender to earn the Flames a penalty, which Joseph Kamwendo fluffed in the 29th minute.

But none of all the memories about this Dedza boy parallels that aerial ball control and turn. The pass was from the ring wing and the boy was sandwiched by two Chad defenders.

Standing on toes facing the western side of the pitch at an angle like all professional do, Ngalande jumped to welcome the ball with his stronger right boot and where ordinary players would have waited to ‘land,’ the little genius, on his left foot, swivelled, then brought the ball down.

Then the rough edges in this diamond that needs polishing appeared again as, he had in the first-half, when, set clear in sight of the goal, he opted to pass.

Like all youngsters, Ngalande can do better. He sometimes spends seconds too long on the ball. His nerveless display is also his weaknesses as sometimes you need the nerves to gamble with a shot. Ngalande can do better in shooting more on target even more from long range.

For a striker, the boy who has six caps, also has a lot to build his physique. And the good thing is that the boy, as he told the BBC Sport’s Ed Aarons, knows he has a lot to learn.

“I am still improving my game and it is a great place to be. Some of the guys at Atletico call me Eto’o and it would be great to do as well as him in Europe,” Ngalande told the BBC on August 6 2011.

These should be few weak points to be worked on indeed considering that his Flames career is much in its infancy. The only challenge is that he is Malawian and he is the only Europe-based player in coach Kinnah’s plans; hence, too much is expected from his young legs.

When such perceived saviours come all the way from Europe and put in an average performance, the fans simply fail to see the larger picture and rebel against them.

Like Dan Chitsulo before him, all Ngalande has is a huge promise which he has made with Malawians. Fulfilling it with the very unpredictable Malawian fans is the larger part of the credit that Ngalande has to fulfil. For now, it looks like time is on his side.

Now, Ngalande has finally come home. Until recently, like South Africa-based Isaac Chilemba to Malawi boxing, Ngalande was to Malawi football a stranger in own homeland.

But after the two home matches, the reunion has been sealed, the lad has been welcomed back home having left a virtually unknown in 2010 to South Africa for hugely rewarding spell with the youth side of Mamelodi Sundowns, which was a spring board of his K60 million move to the C side of Spanish La Liga side, Atletico Madrid.

“Madrid has been great so far and I have already learnt a lot in the few months I have been here. I am just trying to learn the language, but I am getting there slowly. It has definitely been the hardest part of living in Spain,” Ngalande told the BBC.

That few Malawian fans knew Ngalande should not be surprising because while Andy Simkonda was the star of the Under-17 side that qualified for the 2009 Africa Youth Championship in Algeria, Ngalande was coach John Kaputa’s second choice striker.

With Simkonda overage at the time of the trip to Algeria, it was Ngalande who took responsibility, leading the lines to emerge as Malawi’s leading scorer with four goals as the Junior Flames sneaked to the World Youth Cup.

It was from Algeria that Sundowns scout spotted the boy, then registered with Civo United. He was chased by representatives for close to 21 Europe teams, including Manchester City and Chelsea for trials. Ngalande and his business manager Paul Mitchel settled for an outright deal which Atletico offered.

Sundowns chief scout Trott Moloto could not help praise the boy: “He is simply phenomenal; scoring an average of two goals per game, he has already hit 40 goals.”

Ngalande’s business manager Mitchel recently revealed why out of 20-plus Sundowns youth team players who participated in a 2010 World Youth Under-19 championship, it was Ngalande who got the dream move.

“I look at the age, technical ability, physical strength and size. A player has to show good basics even if he’s raw. Robin had that, two great feet, good touch, quick and could finish,” Mitchel told The Nation recently.

At such a tender age, he has trained with some of world’s top players such as Diego Forlan, David de Gea, Antonio Rayes and Falcao. And as they say the rest is history.

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