The stone that the builder rejected has become the cornerstone – The story of Emmanuel Mayuka
Not all days are Sundays, life is full of ups and downs but what is important is to pick up pieces and mend them together. The trick is to enjoy the ups and have the courage during the downs to go through them.
He was born on 21st November 1990, played for the Magnificent people’s team on the local scene before making a lucrative move to Europe where he played for top Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv before moving to Young boys of Switzerland who have stormed round of 16 of Europa league after dumping Bayern Leverkusen.
He then moved to Southampton in the English premier league, Sochaux and Metz France in French Ligue 1 before returning to Africa with Zamalek SC and now NAPSA Stars.
He was a regular and prominent name in the young boys’ squad of 2010-2012 scoring 20 times before a slow career stats after moving to Southampton in 2012. Things seemed difficult for the 2012 Afcon golden boot winner, he returned to Africa and featured for Zamalek of Egypt after which he moved to Israel to play for Hapoel Ra’anana but things didn’t work. He made a home return to Zambia.
ZAMBIAN RETURN
In 2019 Mayuka made a return with Green Buffaloes. He had hopes of rejuvenating his career but things did not work out. He moved to his parent club, he featured for last on the local front before he had stints out of Zambia, Kabwe warriors.
He was also not given a contract. As a human being, depression gets better in such situations where you feel your own have rejected you. Months later unpleasant images of him started appearing on social media and some people started making fun of him.
NAPSA STARS AND FATHI
NAPSA Stars is sponsored by the national pension scheme authority(Napsa) hence the name, with its coach being Mohamed Fathi an Egyptian by roots. It took Fathi who had previously worked with Mayuka at Warriors to think through and remember what great contributions Mayuka made for Zambia.
“At buffaloes, he was rejected, at warriors, he was rejected. When you say he is your son, adopt your son when he’s down. When it came to Mayuka, it was just not about me only it’s about Napsa also because the club president and secretary-general were with the idea of bringing Mayuka to the team as they encouraged me. When he came to the club, mentally he was ready but the body was the one with the problem but with time but I knew this man will come up,” Fathi said
RISING TO THE OCCASION WHENEVER IT MATTERS MOST
He scored the first league goal for Napsa stars in the game against Green Buffaloes in the 18th minute on 12th December 2020 following a Daniel Silavwe assist at the time when Napsa had not won any match in the league the result which saw Napsa stars move out of the bottom to 16th place with four draws, one win, and a loss. He handed Napsa stars first league win when they needed a first to boost confidence levels.
After a goalless draw at the heroes stadium in the second round of the CAF confederation cup against UD Songo of Mozambique. Napsa stars traveled to Mozambique where they were on the verge of being booted out after conceding early in the 22nd minute, He was introduced in the 71st minute and it took him 4 minutes to score an important away goal in the 75th minute for the match to end 1-1 a result which saw Napsa stars qualify to pre-group round.
In the pre-group round, Napsa stars were paired with Kenyan giants Gor Mahia dubbed the husband of all teams. The first leg in Kenya ended 1-0 in favor of Napsa stars before an almost shock and eliminating results for Napsa following a 3-minute blitz. Napsa stars were down 2-1 in 3 minutes a result which would have seen them bow out of the competition. Fathi had to turn to his bench in the 40th minute for the stone which every builder had rejected and it was thrown in the fore.
Time was ticking, it was the last attack for the game in the last 4 minutes of added time and Napsa was still down. Everyone was confident that Napsa has kissed goodbye to the competition but not at all as the man was Mayuka to step up and convert from the penalty spot to hand Napsa stars qualification to the CAF confederation group stage with a 3-2 aggregate win.
On Saturday, Mayuka again came from the bench to score the winner as NAPSA Stars edged Lusaka Dynamos 1-0 in a Lusaka derby to move out of the relegation zone.
Fans have already started talking about his return to the national team setup but whether that will happen or not this has been an incredible comeback and should inspire a lot of young football players.