The national team career of Geoffrey Massa came to a halt last week when he called time on The Cranes.
Renowned for his powerful physique and aerial prowess, Massa has been a key figure for the national team over the past dozen years.
For most part of that period, he has led the striking line and scored 12 goals during qualification campaigns for the Nations Cup as well as the World Cup. My stats also show that in totality, Massa found the back of the net 29 times in 89 appearances for The Cranes, including friendlies as well as Cecafa Cup matches.
For most part of his Cranes career, Massa has been fending off critics who always had a habit of writing him off every after a bad display. Indeed, it can be argued that he never really won over fans’ hearts due to inconsistency.
Reliable as he was, positioning and passing were never Massa’s attributes. Besides, his first touch always left a lot to be desired and there have been times when he played as if disinterested.
Granted, no striker was ever able to dislodge Massa, and on several occasions, he has been Uganda’s go-to man when we needed a game changer. The cool finish against Zambia during the 2013 Nations Cup qualifiers stands out while his brace against Guinea on a chilly night at Namboole stadium will forever stay in my memory.
Looking back, one can easily sum up his Cranes career as outstanding by virtue of leading The Cranes to the 2017 Nations Cup finals. Just like for many of his peers, that Nations Cup qualification will forever be the highlight of his career in spite of the fact that it
came at a time when he was in the evening of his career. In retrospect, Massa will not like the fact that he was an unused substitute on his last Cranes outing, the 1-1 draw with Mali.
UNCONVENTIONAL TALENT
In football, the timing of a player’s breakthrough matters a lot. I have seen the careers of many promising youngsters derailed after they fail to get playing time on the national team.
The one conspicuous player who comes to mind is three-time top-flight league top-scorer Mathias Kaweesa, who failed to nail a starting position due to the presence of indispensable Majid Musisi. As a matter of fact, Musisi’s longevity limited several other top strikers of his era to bit-part roles. These include Charles Letti, the 1986 league top marksman, Umar Senoga and later Ibrahim Kizito, the 1995 top-scorer in the league.
However, a young Massa couldn’t have timed it any better in 2005 when his combination with Martin Muwanga at Police FC attracted the attention of the football fraternity. Massa was playing the support role but his pace and strength caught many people’s eye. It also happened that at the time,
Ugandan was going through a transitional phase on and off the pitch following the infamous 2003 season climax as well as the ouster of Denis Obua from Fufa.
So, everything was up for grabs right from the top football office up to the starting slots in the new- look national team.
Therefore, Massa seized every minute on Cranes duty to win over hearts because the only recogniz- able striker in the team was an over-the-hill Hassan Mubiru.
That in itself was a rare feat for Massa because starting strikers normally came from the traditional big three of SC Villa, KCCA and Express. It took less than a year before the big breakthrough on September 2, 2006 when he marked his ‘full’ debut with a brace against Lesotho in a 2008 World/Nations Cup qualifier.
Mind you, Massa had already featured for The Cranes in the 2005 Cecafa Cup but we all know that tournament had already been watered down. Since then, Massa cemented his place as a mainstay in the team and over the years saw many strike partners arrive with a band only to disappear on a whimper. These include Eugene Sseppuuya, Geoffrey Sserunkuma, Brian Umony, Emma Okwi, Robert Sentongo, Hamis Kiiza and many more.
LEGACY
The common question I got from people is where Massa ranks among the country’s best players. The one thing I have learnt over time is that football greatness,
or the lack of it, has always been judged based on achievement and stats. Massa, for all his attributes, can never be described as a prolific striker or a team leader.
In previous eras, he would have struggled to get a sniff into the national teams because there are quite many players who had similar or better pace and physique of a prime Massa.
The one who comes to mind is Chris Ddungu, the seventies net buster who topped the league scoring charts in 1975 for KCCA. Like Ddungu, his biggest contribution to the team was to destabilize the opponents’ defensive setup but he never really cut it in The Cranes fold.
On the other hand, however, football success is not for the most skilled or gifted; but for those who go out of their way to reach the top. In that regard, Massa deserves a lot of credit and based on achievement, he is up there with the best ever.
You cannot deny the man his due when the star-studded eighties generation of John Latigo didn’t even win a single Cecafa Cup. Or the talented nineties era of Paul Hasule and Majid Musisi, who contrived to underachieve on the big stage.
Massa will always be remembered as the captain who guided Uganda to the Nations Cup after 39 years. That in itself is enough to be among the greatest.
bzziwa@observer.ug
The author is operations director of The Observer Media Ltd.