LaLiga’s unsung continental trailblazers remembered on Africa Day
Some of Africa’s biggest football stars have become household names due to their successful exploits at some of LaLiga’s elite clubs, but on this Africa Day LaLiga puts the focus on some players who were continental trailblazers due to their time in Spain.
The likes of Cameroon’s Samuel Eto’o, Cote D’Ivoire’s Yaya Toure and Seydou Keita are world-renowned for their time at FC Barcelona, while Cameroon’s Geremi Njitap was a two-time Uefa Champions League winner with Real Madrid and Frederic Kanoute a double Copa del Rey and Uefa Cup winner with Sevilla.
Those are players whose stories are well documented, but there are other players who may not be globally well known, but who nevertheless made an important contribution to growing LaLiga’s footprint and support on the African continent.
If Eto’o and Geremi are LaLiga’s most famous Cameroonians, there is another in Fabrice Olinga who has his own footnote in LaLiga history as the league’s youngest goalscorer.
At the age of just 16 years three months and six days, Olinga made history on the opening day of the 2012/13 season, scoring the only goal of the game in his debut for Malaga against RC Celta.
Olinga was a product of the Samuel Eto’o Foundation, but was unable to sustain his LaLiga career and currently plays his club football in Belgium.
Only two Kenyan players have ever played in LaLiga, McDonald Mariga Wanyama – who played as a defensive midfielder at Real Oviedo in the 2017/2018 season – and electric striker Michael Olunga.
On January 13 2018 Olunga made African LaLiga history by becoming the first Kenyan to score a LaLiga hat-trick, a treble in just 22 minutes for Girona in a 6-0 thrashing of Las Palmas.
Olunga had a bright future and plenty of prospects in Europe, before opting to join the Qatar professional league.
His time at Girona may have been brief, but it was certainly memorable as he made football-loving Kenyans sit up and take notice and follow the exploits of the Spanish league.
SA’S FORTUNE MAKES HIS MARK
Egypt’s Ahmed Hossam Hussein Abdelhamid Wasfy, popularly known as ‘Mido’, was a poster boy of current Mo Salah proportions for the Pharaohs during a colourful career at clubs such as Ajax Amsterdam, Marseille, Roma and Tottenham Hotspur.
Before his European odyssey really took off, Mido was part of a famous period for Celta Vigo as a 19-year-old in 2003, helping Celta to finish a lofty fourth in LaLiga – ahead of even Barcelona that year.
It was a short, sharp loan stint for Mido, but one where he certainly made his mark in European football, scoring four goals in eight starts for Celta in a season in which he also rekindled at Celta his bond with South Africa’s Benni McCarthy from their Ajax Amsterdam days as young African sharpshooters.
The first South African, though, to play in LaLiga was McCarthy’s good friend and Cape Town compatriot, Quinton Fortune, who was part of the Atletico Madrid squad that celebrated a famous league title and Copa del Rey double in 1996 and that was captained by current legendary coach, Diego Simeone.
Fortune left Atleti for a big money move to Manchester United as Sir Alex Ferguson came calling, but it was his foray into LaLiga that helped popularise the Spanish league in South Africa.
Another Cameroonian who is renowned for being part of Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal ‘Invincibles’ squad of 2008, Lauren Etame-Mayer, actually cut his teeth at LaLiga as a teenager at Sevilla.
Lauren was well known in Spain from his early days as a right back at Sevilla when he made history with Cameroon at the Olympics of 2000 by winning the gold medal for the Indomitable Lions in a thrilling penalty shootout against a star-studded young Spain side.
He broke many Spanish hearts that day, no more so than his wife – who hails from Seville.
At one stage Obafemi Martins was the hottest star in African football, the Nigerian Super Eagle’s storied career taking him far and wide to clubs such as Newcastle, Inter Milan and Rubin Kazan.
It included a stop too in LaLiga in 2012 when he signed for Levante, scoring nine goals in all competitions before he controversially left LaLiga when Major League Soccer side Seattle Sounders met his release clause and prised him away from Spain, much to the anger and disappointment of Levante fans.
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Eduardo Camavinga is an Angolan who is setting Real Madrid alight at the moment with his obvious talent, but his countryman Manucho was the first Angolan to get world football talking when he signed for Manchester United from Luanda’s Petro Atletico in 2008.
Work permit problems, injuries and the small matter of Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez in the pecking order ahead of him, meant Manucho played just 42 minutes in a senior Manchester United shirt before he moved to LaLiga from the Red Devils.
Manucho signed for and saw out a five-year deal with Valladolid, before eventually signing for Rayo Vallecano in 2014. Four years later he would win his only career honour as they secured the Segunda Division title in his final season at the club.
They are all players with interesting footnotes in LaLiga’s entertaining and colourful African history, which continues to thrive and grow with over 25 Africans currently featuring in LaLiga.