Chippa United

Chippa’s foreign striker imports Bienvenu Eva Nga and Augustine Chidi Kwem are looking to make their name in the PSL after difficult journeys to reach South Africa.

Chippa United two powerful strikers Bienvenu Eva Nga and Augustine Chidi Kwem are from neighbouring countries in West Africa but never played top-flight football in their respective homelands. They took the unconventional route to enter the Premier Soccer League and almost half-way through the season, their bustling and hustling style is already being felt. KICK OFF’s Lovemore Moyo spoke to the duo as they revealed what it took for them to play professional football.

For the long and winding journey that Bienvenu Eva Nga had to take to play in the Premier Soccer League, for some it would have been much easier to give up on football and pursue another career.

He has first-hand experience of both rejection and dejection, but still persevered to realise his dream.

Born in the Cameroon capital city of Yaounde, Eva Nga’s father never wanted him to play football, insisting that education was the only path for his son.

Without much of an option, he pursued tertiary education until he dropped out in the second year of his Geography studies at the University Soa when his football talent became too obvious to ignore.

“My father didn’t want to hear a thing about football until he was convinced by my uncle Ateba Bernard, who was a former footballer that played in Japan and China,” says Eva Nga.

“Bernard spotted me playing in a village tournament during the off-season and then convinced my father to allow me to take up a career in football. For over 10 years my father had refused to listen to me talking about football because according to him there were no guarantees in the game. It was then that my father became supportive in football,” says Eva Nga.

After dropping out of varsity to link up with local lower division club Fortuna, Eva Nga missed out on a trial in Serbia and then went on to play for Real d’Or, after which Bernard worked out a move for him to play in neighbouring Gabon at Stade Mandji Port-Gentil.

“I signed my first contract in Gabon and I sent all the money I got there to my father because I wanted to shut his mouth and convince him that I could make a career out of football,” he notes.

‘They suspected that we were drug dealers’

After his stint in the Gabonese seaport was cut short by injury he then headed back home from where a move to Malaysia was proposed by an agent in 2014.

That failed move to the Asian country marked the beginning of a horror three years which took him to Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania and Mozambique.

“After spending our own money in going to Nigeria to get visas, we were denied entry in Kuala Lumpur because they suspected that we were drug dealers instead of

footballers, despite having all the papers in order.

“I had already been out of football for eight months so I just didn’t want to return to Cameroon, and I told myself I will fight for my life outside regardless of what it takes. From Malaysia we flew on Ethiopian Airlines to Addis Ababa, where I hoped to find a club after paying US$100 [R1,550] to get a visa, but I couldn’t.

“I then went to Uganda and nothing worked again. Next, I took a bus to Tanzania but still could not get a club after which an agent said I should come to Mozambique, where I stayed two years club hunting.

“In Mozambique I suffered. I went to eight clubs on trials but wasn’t signed despite being told that I was a good player. I was told a lot of strange stories and left frustrated. My situation got so bad that when I was training at Liga Muculmana, I woke up at 5am to be able to make it at training at 9am because I had no transport money and nothing to eat.

“From where I stayed to training it was a distance equivalent to that of Johannesburg to Pretoria. If ever I had anything to eat it was bread plus water mixed with sugar. On one occasion when it got so bad, I asked my father to send me US$800 to buy a ticket so that I go back, but then I lost the money. “That was the lowest point of my life and it got so bad that another guy who owned a small shop made me drink alcohol for the first time in my life. I drank two beers and went crazy. I survived on the grace of Good Samaritans,” details Eva Nga.

Light at the end of the tunnel

Almost 30 months into his stay in Mozambique he eventually landed a contract at Grupo Desportivo de Maputo but wasn’t paid for all the six months that he spent there. “The club was run by people who were not serious about the welfare of players,” he points out. Fortunately, his goals ignited interest from all over, including all the eight clubs in Maputo that he had been to on trials but decided to join ENH de Vilankulos, with whom he finished the league’s second top scorer behind former Ajax Cape Town forward Telinho.

“I was suddenly wanted by every club, including those that didn’t want me before. At times I would get 15 calls from different clubs in one day. They were now promising me heaven yet some of them had ignored me when I was asking for a chance,” he laughs.

Eva Nga then left for Portugal via a covert registration at FC Chibuto but again had to endure awful conditions on the Iberian Peninsula where he had short stints with lower division clubs Leixoes SC and Amora FC.

“The problem was that the agent who took me there lied to me. I went there under the impression that there were top teams keen on me only to find out that there was nothing like that. The conditions were not good, and I was paid less money in Portugal, around 1,000 Euros [R18,400] per month than I got in Mozambique, which was US$1,800 [R27,700].

“My father was surprised that I couldn’t send money home when I was in Portugal, yet I could when I was in Mozambique,” he relates.

‘I cried when Wits were sold’

Next up he went back to Mozambique joining Costa do Sol, where his salary went up to US$2,200 [R33,800] plus signing on fees and in that 2019 season he won the top scorer award with 26 goals in all competitions, attracting the interest of BidVest Wits.

After joining Wits, a year ago, he scored four goals in 20 appearances after which the club was sold, forcing him to seek new employers.

“I arrived at Wits tired because I had played all year in Mozambique but then tried to fight my way because [coach] Gavin Hunt wanted me to play right away. I was so tired that after some games I played for Wits I didn’t even have an appetite to eat.

“I cried when I heard the team ( Wits) had been sold. It was a shock for me and even though TTM had bought contracts of the players as well, I was told that they are not a good team for me to go to so I refused to join them and instead I took the decision to come to Chippa United.”

At Chippa, the striker has made a grand entrance after scoring a hat-trick in his first start of the season and feels he has reason to believe that the top goal scorer award is there for the taking.

“I want to be the top scorer in the league, and I know everything is possible if you believe in yourself. I will not make it happen on my own, but it will take the efforts of the team and what I like is that we have quality players here at the club. If we stick together,

“I WENT TO EIGHT CLUBS ON TRIALS BUT WASN’T SIGNED DESPITE BEING TOLD THAT I WAS A GOOD PLAYER.”

we are going to do well and luckily for us we have a coach [Lehlohonolo Seema] who understands all of us,” he adds.

“My family’s life back home in Cameroon has now changed for the better because I am able to help them. Nowadays there is never an occasion when I am not able to send money whenever they need it,” he concludes.

‘People called me funny names’

Meanwhile, on the flight that Augustine Chidi Kwem took from Nigeria to South Africa armed with a student visa in 2017, he was simmering with a desire to earn a living playing football.

Upon landing in Johannesburg, he found himself staying at a pastor’s house in Protea Glen Extension Two in Soweto.

The Nigerian pastor, whose church was in Soweto, had promised him that he would use his football contacts to get him a club but then only found himself training with the University of Johannesburg varsity league team.

“The pastor brought me into the country and was the only person that I knew in South Africa,” recalls Chidi Kwem. “People were surprised to see a Nigerian staying in Soweto. People there called me funny names, but I would just mind my own business. Some people feared me because I was big.

“I would only walk to the shops or when I am going to catch a taxi to training at UJ in Auckland Park. I had come to South Africa with w huge football dreams but found myself taking t taxis from Protea to Bree Taxi Rank and then t to Auckland Park and back again. At times t there would be a long queue for taxis at Bree after training.

“I just decided to keep my belief and trust in the process because I was always looking at the t bigger picture knowing that there would be light at the end of the tunnel. If I had registered to be a student at UJ I would have played in the Varsity Cup but I just ended up keeping fit with them.

“Luckily, the academy that I had been attached to in Nigeria used to send me money to sustain myself. Many Nigerians would w have given up and gone to the streets to do business if they had been in

my situation at that time. Someone says my story is similar to that of [former Mpumalanga Black Aces and West Ham United striker] Emmanuel Emenike because he used to wash dishes for some food vendor but would still go to training afterwards but now, he is a millionaire,” reveals Kwem.

Making his mark in Motsepe League

From UJ he featured at the Discovery Walter Sisulu Soccer Challenge in Soweto and then played for three clubs in the ABC Motsepe League – Polokwane City Rovers, Mthatha Bucks and Sibanye FC, where he earned R7,000, R8,000 and R5,000 per month respectively.

“I lived out of my travelling bag staying at the clubhouses of all these clubs and with the money I got I still had to send some to my family back home. During the off-season I was always the only one left at those clubhouses because I had nowhere to go, which is why I was even robbed at Sibanye just before I came for trials at Chippa.

“I was moving around because I couldn’t settle in one place as a foreigner and whenever I watched the PSL I felt I could play in this league. l chased the next opportunity all the time. At Sibanye I met Bruce July, who was the coach and he recommended me to Chippa United as he felt I was too good for the Motsepe League.

“I then went for trials at Chippa and after a week I was offered a contract at the beginning of last season,” he says.

Though signed by Clinton Larsen, he never played under him, only getting his debut under caretaker coach Duran Francis before earning more minutes under Norman Mapeza.

At the end of his first season Kwem had eight goals to his name, sending a hint about just how useful a striker he is despite having come from the amateur ranks.

“The only way to improve now is to better my numbers but then it shouldn’t be at the expense of the team. I know as strikers we will always be judged on goals. Goals are what build our confidence but then I am not selfish, which is why I gave Eva Nga the penalty after I was brought down against Maritzburg United.

“Being a new player, I wanted him to build his confidence so that both of us get off our feet. The team needs both of us buzzing. We are working for the badge first and then the name at the back [of the shirt] second,” says the Nigerian forward, who was already linked with a move abroad at the end of last season.

“This season I decided to stay here at the

“MANY NIGERIANS WOULD HAVE GIVEN UP AND GONE TO THE STREETS TO DO BUSINESS IF THEY HAD BEEN IN MY SITUATION AT THAT TIME.”

club despite all the offers that agents were coming with because Chippa gave me a chance when I was a nobody. Nobody cared about me before but Chippa gave me a salary and accommodation, so that is why I want to repay him.

People are deceived by seeing me on television now and think it was a bed of roses to get where I am, yet it wasn’t. I had to hold on. I was in Soweto for the first three months that I spent here with kids pointing and running after me everywhere I went.

“I didn’t understand the language, but I was nicknamed Gadaffi and when I googled it up, I realised it was a character from television soapie Generations who was also known as Kumkani.

“I had to make a decision on my own and felt there was no rush in going to Europe when I have only played a single season in the PSL. Chippa did a lot for me so I felt I needed to stay for at least one more season and I chose to go against the wishes of my representative.

“I told him that I will sign to stay. The interest was coming from all over Europe in Norway, Turkey and then the Gulf countries and in Algeria and Egypt,” he discloses.

Kwem was born in Lagos and played in oversize boots in his development years as he rubbed shoulders with Kelechi Iheanacho, Nwakali brothers Kelechi and Chidiebere, along with Samuel Chukwueze.

In his teenage years he spent a season with Beitar Jerusalem’s Under-19 and declares that his hopes are now on maintaining good form at Chippa and then playing international football.

“This season I want to keep good form and help the team into the top eight while we fight for a cup. My dream is to play for any national team if they select me to play for them. I have seen the white people doing it so why can’t the black people do it as well?

“I have never played for Nigeria before, so I am available for any country, even if it is Lesotho. Emmanuel Adebayor is a Nigerian who played for Togo,” says Kwem.