The legend of Magid Musisi and a case of what could have been

BY MARK SSALI

Such was the contradictory life of a man so nice and yet so mad, so gifted and yet so flawed, so down to earth and yet so wild, that an immortal turned out to be mortal after the passing of Magid Musisi.

When he breathed his last on that Tuesday night, Musisi became only the latest sporting genius whose extravagant and reckless ways should serve as an example to youths about how not to live.

Ironic that tragedy should strike here on the back of many other global icons who have had their own struggles like ex-Man. United star George Best, but Uganda has had its own long list of those, prominent among them Musisi’s former teammates Godfrey Kateregga and Paul Hasule.

But I am not going to join the multitudes of moralists condemning Musisi’s lifestyle, not today.

Even monks die. And yet not even the monks in a particularly rebellious monastery (if ever there was one) put together, would indulge in half the excesses Musisi managed in his short life.

However, having watched almost every single step in the man’s journey to becoming a legend, and having actually been quite close at one time, I choose to celebrate Magid’s magical life the way I prefer to remember him; as the outrageously talented footballer Uganda will probably never have again.

Single twist

My fascination with the man was such that every single goal he scored, every little touch, every single twist and turn on the pitch between 1986 and 1992 was imprinted on my mind and the memories are as vivid as if they were as recent as the night of his passing.

Which is why when everybody was raving on about his incredible first minute strike against Iwuanyanwu at Nakivubo and his tie-clinching header away to the Nigerians in the 1991 African Club Champions Cup (now the Champions League), I was looking to another goal as confirmation that Musisi had cemented his place among the greats of all time.

The goal was against little-known Tanzanian side Pamba in the first round of Africa’s top club competition that same season. Villa were underdogs in all the other ties against El Merriekh, Al Ahly, Iwuanyanwu and Club Africain as, in a feat of historic proportions, they unbelievably reached the final.

But they were favourites to beat Pamba in this potential banana skin, and the nerves were calmed by a wonder strike from a man whose goals were so much taken for granted at the time that very few will recall.

On one of his customary forays down the right in this game at Nakivubo, Hasule swung a low cross into the area where Musisi had just enough time to shake off a defender, dive to grass level and redirect the ball into the bottom corner of the net in amazing fashion.

Haircut

At the time, he spotted a long-in-the-middle-but-nothing-on-the-sides haircut made famous by one of the crewmembers of then-top rap group Kid ‘N Play. But he could not have made more than just a hair’s breadth of contact with the ball!

Wonder goal though it was, it was just one of hundreds in ‘my collection’ from the man since my ‘love affair’ with him had begun years earlier.

Watching him metamorphose from a striker who used brute force in 1986 and ’87 to one who developed the subtleties of a complete player by the time he left for professional football in 1992, I was never in doubt that I was blessed to have seen the great man from close quarters.

As an S.3 student in Masaka in 1988, I remember using up what was left of my ‘pocket money’ to travel to Kampala aboard a Gaso Bus to watch a Uganda Cup semifinal clash between Villa and Express.

Then Express coach Robert Kiberu (RIP) had promised that the Red Eagles’ frustrating losing streak was coming to an end that day and the stadium was so full there was barely enough air for all to share.

With Express playing well enough to win, up stepped (or rather down sat) Musisi to cruelly end the contest. Having failed to make contact with another vintage Hasule cross from the right and lost his footing in the process, Musisi was literally sitting in the Express box when Sula Kato swung the ball back from the left. But the man who at the time deserved the nickname Tyson in more ways than one, still managed to stick out a toe to send the ball into the net for the sucker punch that turned out to be the knockout blow.

As I sat in those infamous Masaka Road Peugeots on my way back to school, I was torn between a sadness for Express’ plight and an elation over another piece of Musisi’s magic that it didn’t matter that I was totally broke and risked missing the after-chapel roll call which I was supposed to conduct as the assistant head prefect at St. Charles Lwanga Kasasa.

Kirussia

I had been sitting on the Express side of the Kirussia that day, but years later I would get to watch Musisi from much closer quarters.

Being a ‘villagemate’ to Musisi and his teammates in Najjanankumbi and inevitably becoming friends, I was convinced to join them at Villa Park after my S.6 exams at St. Mary’s College Kisubi in 1992.

At Villa Park, I was left impressed when then coach Timothy Ayiekoh lambasted strikers Iddi Batambuze, Sam Mukasa and the rest, saying it was a shame that Musisi still arrived at training earlier and put in more work than them yet he was due to leave for France and already possessed a lot more in his armoury than they would ever have.

In an attempt to prepare the team for his imminent departure, Ayiekoh banished Musisi to the second team (referred to as Kakakuona after Tanzania’s B team), leaving Batambuze and Mukasa to forge a partnership in the first XI, meaning that I partnered Musisi in the second team.

Our Kakakuona team almost always beat the first team and Musisi, without saying much, told me and showed me things that would have made me a good striker but for fate and my inadequacies.

Rather than think about the enhancement of my career though, I was more worried about Musisi making a mark in France with Stade Rennes that, without ever telling him of course, I used to watch him closely to see if he was preparing himself well.

Imagine how pleasantly surprised I was when, while at a party in Najjanankumbi one evening, Musisi jokingly said to me: “Mark, my coat stinks.”

He was dressed in this knee-deep jacket and the ‘stench’ he was referring to was from a beer bottle concealed in one of the inside pockets.

Right tenses

The shock for me was not that he should have a beer, but that he should (matter-of-factly) construct a grammatically correct English sentence complete with the right tenses! Like he had done with his football, watching, copying and practising all the tricks he saw on videos of Marco van Basten, other European players and even a talented striker from Burundi’s Vital’O, Musisi had quietly gone about learning English as well!

That year, Musisi ended up in the top 10 of the Fifa International Goal Getters Competition, finishing just behind George Weah as the only two Africans in an elite list including the likes of van Basten, Jurgen Klinsmann and Jean Pierre Papin.

Although he broke Ugandan transfer records and scored enough goals to finish top scorer at three different European clubs (Rennes and Turkish sides Bursaspor and Dardanelspor), I believe his abilities deserved better and that better luck and a better agent could have got him to a bigger club and Uganda might have boasted an African Footballer Of the Year; he was that good.

After being on the same list as Weah, their careers took different paths.

While Musisi fell in the hands of a an unappreciative coach who said the Ugandan should have scored more goals despite being top scorer, Weah went under the tutelage of the extremely patient Arsene Wenger who stuck with him when everybody else laughed at his poor first touch and raw, unrefined style.

So, as Weah was going places and being named World Footballer Of the Year among other things, Musisi’s European adventure was ending as Dardanelspor was relegated to a lower league in which foreigners were not allowed to play.

Dejected

Back home a while later, dejected, broke and with his personal life in shambles, Musisi met me at Anger Noir one night and said: “Mark nawe wanelabila? Did you also forget about me?”

He was already ailing then and I thought he should not have another drink or be out that late. But he was stubborn and when he insisted on having a warm Guinness, I reluctantly obliged.

That question was not just to me, somebody with whom he shared more than just those evening walks in Najjanankumbi with Robert Ssemakula, Adam Semugabi and Charles Ssimbwa back in the day.

It was a plea to the entire country and prompted me to act for the fondness of my memories, for the patriotism in me as well as the guilt.

When I teamed up with Nick Cavell, now at the BBC, to help Transworld Sport do a profile on him in 2000, I thought it was the least I could do.

When I started the Mark My Word column in the Daily Monitor in 2003, I had him in mind and wrote as much in the first piece.

Hall of Fame

When I made a plea to Michael Ezra to start a Hall of Fame after listening to a speech from USPA founder Fred Sekitto, I had Musisi in mind.

And when I called on our clubs and federation to introduce the culture of testimonial matches, I was thinking about him.

My single-minded support for the revival of Ugandan football and my involvement with groups like NUFFA owes a lot to him, and I was part of the NUFFA meeting at which it was decided that he should get the financial support he did, however late.

He was the first Ugandan to score 100 league goals. He became synonymous with the brush-headed goal in telepathic tandem with provider Sula Kato, and his goals would have taken Uganda to one or two African Nations Cup finals but for club politics.

It wasn’t just the numbers however, it was the significance of the goals that will keep them forever in the memory, from the left-footed winner against Zaire in 1991 which led to a collapse of part of the Kirussia as fans celebrated, to the hat-trick against Rwanda in a Nations Cup preliminary game in 1998.

Like it is with all legends, the comparisons will continue. But there will never be another like him, not for me.

Factfile

Full name: Magid Musisi

Date of birth: September 15, 1967

Place of birth: Kampala, Uganda

Date of death: December 13, 2005 (aged 38)

Height: 1.78 m (5ft 10in)

Senior career

1982–1983: Mulago

1983–1984: Pepsi

1985–1992: SC Villa

1992–1994: Stade Rennes

1994–1997: Bursaspor

1997–1999: Çanakkale Dardanelspor

1999–2001: SC Villa

2002–2004: SHB Đà Nẵng

2004–2005: Ggaba United