Melvyn Lorenzen is our new big thing. We love new big things. This new big thing even looks pretty good in the YouTube clips. Haters, of course, will say a good video editor can make Antonio Valencia look like Lionel Messi on YouTube. To give Lorenzen the benefit of the doubt, players do not generally stay at big Bundesliga clubs like Werder Bremen up to the age of 21 if they are very modestly talented. So maybe Lorenzen is worth a first, second and even third look.
The idea of a player getting more than one chance is not something to be taken for granted if you are half familiar with the Uganda Cranes. We’ve had a new big thing before in Martin Mutumba (remember how that turned out?), or Joe Kitamirike (he was even on Chelsea’s books—how cool is that?), or Fabian Kizito (he even scored, never mind that he played for a Dutch club no one knew then and no one knows now). With the Cranes, they all went the same way—which was nowhere.
Now, the reports about Lorenzen say he is English-born and German-bred. It is a bad combination if you are planning to mix it in Uganda Cranes. First, he is certain to find most of the professionalism he has grown up taking for granted to be in limited supply in our national team environs. It is a set-up where people neither say what they mean nor mean what they say—and history suggests one could miss out on selection for reasons like playing for the ‘wrong club’ or even having the ‘wrong agent’. That could be the youngster’s challenge dealing with the administrators. There could be more immediate challenges on the field of play.
When Martin Matumba set foot in the team, his performances were not the type to leave fans gasping for breath, but the player blamed his underwhelming shows on the limited time he was afforded by the coaches handling the Cranes at the time he played. To the trained eye however, Mutumba’s problem was not simply that he didn’t know what to do. It also had something to do with the fact that he knew to do the right things but sometimes his teammates did not. Mutumba knew when to pass and when to hold onto the ball, and the truth is that not all his teammates were in tandem. When that happens, the better player can end up looking like the bad player. Lorenzen beware.
There is, however, an even more daunting test that awaits. A nation so starved of real football success is usually no place for a 21 year old upstart to make an international career, with fans that expect nothing short of miracles from their ‘star’ from Bremen. Patience will be in short supply—and that is not the kind of thing a boy with only a few senior club appearances needs. Unfortunately, impatience is what Cranes’ fans are likely to give. It could end the same way it did with Mutumba. I hope I am wrong on Lorenzen, but I am not getting carried away just yet.
