At last, Branko Tucak came back to life and realized that he can not do it all on his own or rather do it his way when he recalled striker Jimmy Gatete back into the national team fold. But whether his action was out of succumbing to pressure (internal, external or both) or something else, that isn’t very important, the most essential aspect here is the fact that he finally has got a natural striker in his mix. While announcing his provisional squad for the forthcoming 2010 World Cup and Africa Nations Cup qualifying campaign, Tucak confirmed the return of Gatete to the Amavubi Stars. But I still wonder whether it was the coach’s decision of his own or someone, somewhere influenced it. Tucak could not have been more unequivocal in his mocking for Gatete’s style of play since taking over the national team reign over a year ago, although I still don’t know whether his decision to recall him is a sign that the striker has improved or his presence has been inevitably missed all that long. However, suggestions that the Amavubi Stars are better off without Gatete are simply inaccurate—the Rayon Sport forward is arguably Rwanda’s best goal-getter even at his age. His game and goal scoring instincts may have dropped a notch or so but whose (among the experienced players on the team) have not? The weird and wonderful world of Gatete may not be to everybody’s liking, but he is well-liked by the fans and all Rwandans in general. He’s most remembered for earning the nickname ‘Imana y’ibitego’ due to his unrivalled scoring prowess between 2002 and 2005. That is significant. Tucak and his assistant Raoul Shungu, who ironically is Gatete’s coach at club level, have had their fingers badly burnt by persistently ignoring the country’s best striker and are still smarting from the disaster of preferring Bobo Bolla, Labama Bokota, Pappy Gasana, Elias Uzamukunda, Jean Lomami and Saidi Abedi over him (Gatete)! Rightly or wrongly - and a media campaign to have the 28-year-old hitman reinstated back to the national fold seem to have worked its magic and hopefully the player himself won’t let his supporters down. He inevitably has been playing well since crossing from APR to Rayon last season or when he’s not injured, but the point to all this is that he still wants to play for his country, something I strongly believe he deserves basing on the list and form of the other striking options at Tucak’s disposal. Gatete, 28 and a born-again Christian has not played for Amavubi since his horror performance against Sudan in the CHAN qualifiers in April last year, which paradoxically was Tucak’s first game in charge after replacing compatriot Josip Kuze, who resigned his job even before the ink on his two-year contract had dried. Despite, the obvious signs that the team would do better with on it than off, Gatete was reduced to a mere interested spectator throughout the entire last phase of the 2010 World Cup and Nations Cup qualifiers—fortunately for the powers-that-be, the team managed to score goals that saw Rwanda qualify to the next phase. A few weeks ago, I wrote in this column expressing my opinion about the whole situation of the coach constantly leaving Gatete out of his plans and I received a catalogue of feedback (from the readers). Most of them were agreeing with me but there was one from a Rwandan living in Canada, who totally agreed with me but was not fine with what I said about those, who might not have any idea about who Jimmy Gatete is. Starting that article, I wrote, “Whatever you may or may not think about Jean-Michel Gatete as a football player I’m sure everyone knows a thing or two or even more about the Rayon Sport and Amavubi Stars striker - if you don’t you are sick, who should perhaps think about putting yourself down.” This reader was particularly not OK with the word ‘sick’ and I had to explain to him what I meant and he seemed to understand. But to come back to the real issue, with a fully-fit Gatete, you don’t only expect a galore of goals but he also adds his intelligence to the game, which unfortunately, Tucak’s team has been lucking previously. And now that the ‘god of goals’ is back in the mix, someone can start real dreaming of 2010 CAN in Angola, after all, we have a ‘god’ on the team—you see, nothing in life can beat commonsense and I really hope that Tucak has finally come to terms with it! Contact: nku78@yahoo.com
