A blistering afternoon at the Amahouro stadium in Kigali last October and deep into the second half Angola seem powerless to break the deadlock against Rwanda in the final game of their World Cup qualifying campaign.
Angola need to match Nigeria’s victory against Zimbabwe, a 5-1 success that finished slightly earlier, to ensure an improbable berth in the finals for the first time. Coach Luis Oliveira Goncalves makes three substitutions. The frustration continues until 10 minutes from time, when one of the substitutes, Ze Kalanga, crosses and Fabrice Akwa rises to head powerfully beyond Rwanda’s keeper.
Akwa, the Angola captain, bursts into tears. The Palancas Negras — the Black Antelopes — have achieved the impossible. The most remarkable qualification not just for this World Cup but, arguably, for any.
A campaign that had nearly ended at the outset, when Angola lost 3-1 away to Chad in a preliminary match in October 2003, ended in triumph. And it is not just the football story that is so remarkable.
Two months after the victory in Rwanda, at the draw in Leipzig, came a reward almost as implausible as their World Cup debut — a dream opening game against Portugal, the country’s colonial rulers for 500 years. It is what has happened since the Portuguese announced, 31 years ago, that they would be leaving that makes Angola’s World Cup journey extraordinary.
Throughout Angola, the parties that followed the Rwanda game were more memorable than the independence day celebrations of November 11 1975, which were foreshadowed by the opening shots of a long and bitter civil war. ”We had a lot of dreams when we were young, but they all disappeared as we grew up during the war,” says Thomas Teixeira, a government worker who acts as driver, interpreter and look-out man during my visit to Angola. ”But everyone forgot about their troubles when the team qualified.”
The World Cup adds further momentum to Angola’s long struggle to leave its past behind. More than 1,5-million people were killed before the fighting finally ended in 2002.
There are more landmines in Angola than in any other country, one for every child. Two million people — one in seven of the population — are threatened by starvation. The average income is the equivalent of barely £4,50 a week. Nearly two-thirds of the population are aged under 16, many of them orphaned. One in three die before they are five and average life expectancy is 45. Angola ranks 166th of 177 nations on the United Nations human-poverty index.
The country is blessed, though, with oil and mineral reserves that make it potentially the richest in Africa. The current oil boom — Angola provides 4% of America’s imported oil — shows no signs of trickling down to the poor; instead it has made a small group of powerful families unimaginably wealthy.
The diamond mines bring in further billions, but again the money is held by only a few.
Most of the 23 players Goncalves selected for Germany 2006 have been directly affected by the war. Benfica striker Pedro Mantorras lost his father when he was three months old, his mother when he was 16.
”I became head of the family very young, living with my sisters and brothers,” he says. ”Now the world has started to see Angola with different eyes where before there was only news of war and misery.”
Mantorras, along with most of his teammates, learned to play football in the dirt. ”I was born playing soccer. I played in the street with my friends every day, barefoot, with a cloth ball. Then one day a man saw me and took me to school. I was 11.”
The conflict prevented any possibility of structured youth football. Landmines and the threat of ambush made travelling by road extremely dangerous, so teams were forced to fly to Angolan league matches. There was a further threat to players.
”We would go training and wouldn’t know if the people from the army would catch us and force us to go fighting,” says skipper Akwa. ”It was obligatory for 18-year-olds. But I was lucky. I never had a problem.”
Away from the smoothly paved boulevards and offices that house the interests of oil and diamond businesses, Luanda is a bewildering blur of heat, dirt, dogs, wild pigs, traffic jams, the sick and the limbless, tented homes, shanty settlements, street vendors who peddle toilet seats, shower heads and rat repellent, and the never-ending crush of people, most of whom are just trying to survive.
Football, though, is the national passion. And although it costs 200 kwanza to watch a match, enough for six loaves of bread, visits to watch Luanda’s major teams — Interclube, ASA, Primeiro Agosto and Petro — offer respectable crowd numbers and raucous, colourful fans who enjoy a good sing-song.
The national team’s policy of searching outside the country for players of Angolan extraction, particularly in Portugal, reverses the usual trend of a former colonial overlord cherry-picking the best talent from its former territories.
The search overseas, which started in 1995, was a factor in Angola’s debut the following year in the African Nations Cup finals and continues to be important. First-choice goalkeeper Joao Ricardo and defender Rui Marques grew up in Portugal. More crucial than any player to their current success, though, is Goncalves, the coach known as the Jose Mourinho of Africa, who rose through the ranks of Angola’s various national age-group teams.
A big, moon-faced man with an easy smile and a liking for gold jewellery, Goncalves began his working life as a painter and carpenter aged 13, before joining a civil-engineering company four years later. His love for football moved him to secretly switch to a physical education course at college and defy his bosses — ”I was already in my final year before they realised” — who had insisted he study engineering. Talking in his small, air-conditioned office at the Angola Football Federation, which uses some ramshackle rooms in a hotel adjacent to the large but rather dilapidated national stadium.
Goncalves got his big chance following the sacking of coach Ismael Kurtz after the defeat in Chad. Along with Rwanda, Angola’s qualifying group featured Gabon, Zimbabwe, Algeria, and Nigeria, the hot favourites. A surprise 1-0 victory over Nigeria in Luanda in June 2004 was followed by a draw in the away game.
Goncalves believes the fundamental factor was changing the mindset of his squad. ”We didn’t have very good players in Europe, like Nigeria and Algeria, so we had to become well-organised. Our psychology was not good when I assumed the leadership: they had lost many matches. I can tell you for example that before we played the opening game of qualification, against Algeria, I told the team to play in a very offensive way. But the players didn’t want to. They said, ‘No, it’s Algeria.’ It was a big result when we drew because then they trusted me. And when we beat Nigeria here it increased even more.”
Sport, and football in particular, has always played an important role in Angolan society, even during the war. Amaral Alexio, a former international striker and now the Petro’s director of football, explains: ”Despite a war that lasted more than 30 years, the Angolan government always created conditions for soccer and other sporting activities to continue. We sent people on scholarships to Cuba, the USSR, Germany, and in some cases to Brazil, to study.”
Alexio emphasises the importance of these relations with the old communist world. ”These people came back after eight or 10 years of study, and they are the ones now developing our sports. War never totally stopped this.”
Since 1996, Angola have qualified twice more for the Nations Cup, but had to wait until this year for their first victory, 3-2 against Togo. ”In South Africa [1996] we arrived late and we were still discussing bonuses and help with costs,” recalls Akwa at the training ground of ASA, where the scorer of a record 31 goals in 68 international appearances is keeping fit while between clubs.
”In Burkina Faso in 1998 it was even worse and there were really unpleasant situations. There were players who wanted second helpings [of food] and directors who refused because they didn’t have the money to pay for it.”
Petro and former Zimbabwe coach Jan Brouwer believe investment in youth is vital for the future. ”In Africa the money is not generally available to improve the infrastructure. But the finance is here. The government sometimes strikes a deal with an oil company when they want to do business. They say, ‘OK. One thing you have to do is sponsor a football club.’ That’s a very nice approach.”
The authorities also invest more directly. The Angolan army subsidises Primeiro. Interclube are the police team. ASA and Petro are, respectively, sponsored by state-owned air and oil companies. Brouwer confirms the government’s serious intent. ”They want to have the African Nations Cup here in 2010 so they are preparing.”
Goncalves has proved his ability to spot potential. He was criticised initially for including Ze Kalanga in the squad, though everyone now agrees the 22-year-old midfielder is a potential match-winner.
The coach tells a tale regarding one 17-year-old he saw training twice at Portuguese club Estrela da Amadora when on one of his many research missions in Europe. ”His brother Roberto Assis said the player, Ronaldo, wanted just $2 500 to stay, but they let him go. I knew that was a mistake. Although he did not then have the physical build, I could tell he had technique.” Ronaldo changed his name to Ronaldinho and went to Paris St-Germain. ”That club lost a lot of money,” Goncalves laughs.
It is the kind of mistake Goncalves seems unlikely to make. He keeps an extensive collection of little black books containing his notes from constant trips around the globe.
His knowledge and tactical acumen have provided Angola with a dream World Cup bow, and a massive boost to the nation’s self-esteem.
In a group that also features Mexico and Iran, Angola, the poorest country to play in the World Cup finals since Haiti in 1974, are expected to finish bottom. ”But in football you never know,” Akwa says. ”I always dreamed about playing in the World Cup when I was a boy. And I’m happy today that I can say my dream will come true.
”Now there is peace we all want to show that there can be positive things in our country. Angola has good weather and is beautiful. It is different now, we are starting to build something. I believe all Angolan people are happy.” — Â