KOLLEH DUMBUYA ( SUPER K ) –THE PHENOMENAL, DAZZLING, TALENTED AND CELEBRATED SOCCER LEGEND
By KABS KANU-Veteran sports editor
One of Sierra Leone’s foremost soccer legends whose talents and heroics on the ball will never be forgotten is Kolleh Dumbuya, variously known as Borbor Kolleh or Super K, who was the toast of the nation in the early 1970s. He did not play for long, as many of our soccer legends , but over 50 years after his mesmerizing and virtuoso displays on the pitch, his name resonates the magic of soccer more than many of our soccer stars.
Today, wherever Kolleh Dumbuya goes, he is adored by ardent Sierra Leone football lovers as the undeniable King of football in his heydays.
Kolleh Dumbuya started his career during the well-organized, more patronized and more thrilling inter-secondary school football leagues of the 70s, starring for Albert Academy and St. Edwards–two leading high schools in the former British colony of Sierra Leone –and quickly metamorphosing into one of the most dazzling and admired soccer talents of his time, moving on to play first for the Congo Market- based West End Rangers in the Second Division of the Sierra Leone Football Association ( SLFA) and then the Old Edwardians Football Club, one of the preeminent soccer clubs in the Sierra Leone First Division.
Kolleh Dumbuya’s arrival in the top -tier of Sierra Leone football took the nation by storm. His name was sung everywhere . News quickly started spreading about the brilliant dibbling soccer magician and dramatic goalscoring prodigy , who knew how to thrill spectators, score artistic goals and even embarrass senior soccer colleagues with his scintillating and immaculate wizardry on the ball .
One of the stars he embarrassed at the then Brookfields Recreation Grounds in Freetown , one of two soccer pitches ( The other being the Kingtom Association Grounds ) where SLFA league matches were played, was no less a man than the then national football captain, the impregnable stopper back Umaru Din-Sesay, whose team, Mighty Blackpool, clashed with Old Edwardians in a high-tempo league encounter before over 50, 000 soccer fans in 1971.
Umaru, one of the best defensive players of West Africa at the time, always stamped his authority on scorers , preventing them from entering his defence. Umaru Sesay always had his way with intending goal – pouchers. One man would prove to be the exception–the young dribbling sensation, Kolleh Dumbuya, who made him look ordinary and chase shadows that evening at the Brookfields Stadium . The fearless and skillful Kolleh Dumbuya did not only run circles around the almighty Umaru Sesay that day but forced the famed defender to lose his cool finally and grab the youngster by his pants to stop him from humiliating him further. It was going to be the talking point in Sierra Leone soccer circles for years thereafter.
Kolleh Dumbuya, who, unfortunately, for all the iconic football revelation he became and the fame that has followed his name all his life, enjoyed only a few years on the soccer pitch due to illness, swiftly graduated into the national football team, the LEONE STARS, where he became the much-heralded national football hero — A status that has not changed with time . It was during the halcyon days of great footballers like Abdulai Garrincha Sesay, King Kama Dumbuya , Manneh Peters, Nahim Khadi, Vava George, Amadu Kargbo, Bai Kabia, Abu Syrian Bangura, Kabba China Kamara, Joseph Ngaimoh, Obi Metzger, Jebor Sherrington, Patrick Kemokai, Sylvanus Morado Kamara, Daniel Fangay Kamara —whose stars were also in the ascendant.
One of Kolleh Dumbuya’s most storied heroics was scoring the winning goal for Sierra Leone when the LEONE STARS, in one of the rare moments they had done it, defeated the much-heralded Nigerian national team, then known as the Green Eagles, in an epic international encounter at the Brookfields Stadium. It was a day the towering Nigerian footballers will never forget–a day when a ball-dribbling and controlling young soccer intellect made them lose their invincibility with his prodigious knack to slice through defences . The Nigerian defence wobbled whenever he had the ball and the Nigerian players could be heard screaming to team mates : “Mark that No 10 !”
Kolleh Dumbuya crowned his gallant performance that day with a goal of indescribable magic, cutting through the Nigerians and smacking the ball with incredible velocity into the net, just as the famous clock at the nearby St. Anthony Church chimed 6 : 00 pm. The cheers that greeted that goal tore through the nation as taxi and poda poda drivers honked their horns all over the city as the then legendary SLBS Radio commentator, Willie Pratt, breathlessly described the remarkable goal , which had given the country a much-celebrated victory over one of the kings of African football, Nigeria. Kolleh’s memorable goal helped give Sierra Leone a 2-1 victory over Nigeria at a time when the Green Eagles were unbeatable and riding high in Africa.
Kolleh Dumbuya came in as an impact substitute against Guinea’s national team –Syli National — and helped the Leone Stars see out another 2-1 victory at the Brookfields Stadium, which was a fortress in those days. Dumbuya also scored the winning goal for Old Edwardians when they defeated East End Lions to win the F.A. Cup.
Kolleh Dumbuya’s name spread widely on the West Coast of Africa and his son, Gibrilla Dumbuya, recalls one of his uncles bringing home from England a British football magazine where his father was featured as another Pele arising in a most unlikely part of the world, Sierra Leone. He wished that he had kept that magazine in a secured place and he had not lost it.
Unfortunately for Kolleh, he got sick and this eventually brought his soccer career to an end. But the most amazing fact is that although his presence on the soccer stage was brief, his accomplishments and the fame acquired continue to surpass those of stars who played the game for decades. It is not the length of time you enjoyed the limelight. What matters most is what you accomplished and in this respect, Kolleh Dumbuya has a lot of glories to relish.
If Kolleh Dumbuya had surfaced in the soccer world of today when European teams use the talents of African footballers, there is no reason why he could not have made immortal fame playing for clubs like his favorite Chelsea or Arsenal or even Real Madrid.
