The rich football history has many striking, tragic or funny characters. In the section Stars Light Football Zone each time the baptismal plot of one of those figures. This time the life story of the Congolese top scorer who shot his country to the African Cup title fifty years ago, Pierre Ndaye Mulamba, nicknamed 'Mutumbula'.

By Sander Grasman

The medal he had received a few days earlier lay on the bedside table, next to the suit he had been loaned for the occasion. Suddenly he woke up when the front door was kicked in. Soldiers dragged him from his bed, beat and kicked him. Shots rang out and the pain in his knee was unbearable. He heard his nine-year-old son scream and then it was quiet, terrifyingly quiet.

Twenty years earlier, Mutumbula, named after a monstrous white creature that terrifies children, was a hero in the country then called Zaire. Little Pierre started playing football against his father's wishes, but when he received an invitation to join a national youth team and a government official even traveled to Katanga to convince the stiff dad, Ndaye senior decided to join in.

The talent then ended up at top club AS Vita from the capital Kinshasa in 1972. In those years, the clubs from Zaire were the crème de la crème of African club football. TP Englebert (now TP Mazembe) ruled the roost in those years thanks to players like Pierre Kalala Mukendi and Kamunda Tshinabu, reached the final of the most important continental club tournament four times in a row and was the first club ever to win the cup twice in a row ('67 and '68). After the arrival of Ndaye Mulamba, Vita took over from the competitor and in turn – in addition to three cups and just as many titles in his own country – also won the African Champions League once.

It was already clear in Congo at that time how good Mutumbula was, but his reputation had not yet reached Egypt prior to the 1974 Africa Cup. “I was not yet as well known as those older boys, who had played for the national team many times before,” the player himself said years later. “But the coaches encouraged me to take advantage of the fact that they didn't know me that well yet.”

And the quick attacker did take advantage. Already in the first match against Guinea the counter rose rapidly. He scored twice in that opening match, followed by a third in the final group match. Then the home country waited in the semi-finals. The Pharaohs Within the hour they were on roses with a comfortable 2-0 lead, but while the frenzied crowd was still celebrating the second goal, Mutumbula got the stadium quiet. It took the Leopards barely fifteen minutes to completely turn the game around and with two goals, Mutumbula's contribution was large in the Zairean remontada.

Because the first final against Zambia remained undecided even after extra time (2-2, twice Mutumbula), there had to be a replay. Ndaye's sights were equally sharp and because Zambia had no answer to his two goals this time, Zaire's second African title in six years was a fact. The final victory brought the entire country into ecstasy, but no one was as delighted with the title as the country's leader: Joseph-Désiré Mobutu, simply Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Za ​​Banga (which means 'Mobutu, the strong, powerful leader who led the country will bring to prosperity' meant). However, it also fueled an unrealistic hunger for even more triumphs in the callous dictator.

Because the national team had already qualified for the World Cup of the same year before winning the African Cup, it seemed that there was still a dessert in store for the players. However, the tournament in West Germany would turn out to be a fiasco. The selection, which had initially been promised mountains of gold, but had not yet seen a single cent, initially even threatened not to play at all, but ultimately fought back valiantly in their first match against a strong Scotland.

It was not enough for Mobutu, who sent a delegation to Europe after the 2-0 defeat to talk down to the players and tell them that they could whistle for their bonuses in the event of another defeat. It had the opposite effect. The players decided to mutiny and were passed on all sides by the Yugoslavs for ninety minutes. To make matters worse, captain Ndaye was sent off for allegedly kicking the referee in the ass during a riot.

It became clear from the images afterwards that the true perpetrator was not him, but defender Joseph Mwepu Ilunga, but it no longer helped Mutumbula's case. After seeing the score rise to 9-0 after the red card, he had to remain passive a few days later – while the Yugoslavian success coach Blagoje Vidinic had also been relieved of his position because he allegedly passed on tactics to his compatriots. watching how reigning world champion Brazil also turned out to be a size or two too big.

Although the players may have been happy that they made it out alive given Mobutu's reputation, the defeat at the World Cup did mean the end of the team's financing. From now on, the dictator preferred to invest that money in other sporting events, such as the Rumble in the Jungle, the title fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. A transfer from Ndaye to Paris Saint-Germain was also torpedoed by the all-powerful leader and the top scorer played his entire career in his own country until he thought it was a good thing at the age of forty.

In 1994, twenty years after his nine goals, the former player was honored by the African Football Association CAF in the Tunisian capital Tunis. The trip was paid for for him and he was even given a new suit by a cigarette manufacturer. For a moment he was the star of old again and beaming with pride he boarded the plane home the next day. Not much later his life would take a drastic turn.

Believing that he must have money at home – or possibly on orders from Mobutu, who had not been particularly happy with the attention paid to his former captain – four soldiers stormed into the Ndaye's house. They demanded money and the medal they had just received. Mutumbula was shot in the knee, but things ended much worse for his son, who had come towards the noise. The boy was hit with the butt of a gun and died on the spot.

Fearing possible new attacks, the player who had once been known for his speed had to flee to South Africa, where he would continue to live and where the Congolese filmmaker Makela Pululu would find him in 2010, penniless and working as a parking attendant. To draw attention to the fate of his old hero, Pululu made a documentary about him titled Forgotten Gold.

For a moment while the documentary was showing, he seemed to be doing better, but like Frank Heinen for his great book Outside the lines comes into contact with Pululu, he informs him that the revival was only short-lived. “[Mutumbula, red.] is in a wheelchair nowadays, He lives in the middle of Kinshasa, alone, without help.” He died not much later. The attention his death generated came far too late for him.

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