2024-09-19 10:06:36
On December 18, 1977, the September 28 stadium, on one of its greatest days, undoubtedly the most historic, was “full as an egg” to use the famous phrase of the late Dean Pathé Diallo.
After more than ten minutes of play, the liberated libero, Chérif Souleymane, more imperial than ever, annihilates a dangerous attack by Hearts Of Oak in the middle of the field, intercepts the ball, controls it and launches his full-back, the very athletic Moussa Camara Suller who saves it in extremis, on the right side, from going out for the 6.5 meters by sending it brilliantly on the head of his center forward who, extraordinarily flexible, jumps higher than his Ghanaian bodyguards, catapults it into the back of the net and opens the score for Hafia FC in the return final of the African Cup of Champions Clubs, already victorious (0-1) in the first leg in Accra thanks to the right winger Amara Touré Pelé, the heir to the former Captain Ibrahima Sory Keïta Petit Sory. It was ecstasy everywhere in Guinea.
The author of this great striker’s gesture opening the way for the first hat-trick in the history of African Football for the flagship Guinean club, making the September 28 stadium, teeming with people, exult and the Guinean populations who, from Boke to Yomou, ears glued to the transistor radio (the preferred means of listening at the time of major events), followed, as if they were present on the scene, the narration of the action faithfully reported by the golden voice of Gaoussou Diaby on the airwaves of the Voice of the Revolution, was none other than Seydouba Bangoura, snatched from our affection this Tuesday, September 17, 2024.
In Fafaya, where I followed the match in the midst of a crowd of fanatical supporters and where the federal office of the State party assigned, as in all the districts of Koubia, newly established as an administrative region, marabouts to read the Holy Book during the 90 minutes, it is impossible to describe the joyful madness that took hold of the people in the street with blessings for the team and the lucky scorer as if the referee had blown the final whistle.
Certainly, it is a glory, better one of the heroes of Guinean Football who is leaving.
I was particularly shocked when I learned the sad news from a phone call from one of his illustrious former teammates from the great moments of Guinean football, the former international left-back, Djibril Diarra Becken.
It was in 75-76 that his friend, my brother the late Ben Camara introduced me to his classmate Seydouba Sylla who was not yet a player for Hafia FC in the vicinity of the Palais des sports of the September 28 stadium. Also, I was far from imagining that the Kaloum Star striker was a half-brother of my childhood friend from Fria Ansou Bangoura and that, through their friendship Aboubacar Bruno Bangoura and him with my brother Cheick Fantamady Conde in these 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s as well as through the proximity of our premises in the 90s-2000s, that we would be close to the point of becoming one of his privileged interlocutors on the situation of political turbulence in Guinea which greatly preoccupied his dream of an emerging country.
Indeed, the former international, first scorer of the definitive conquest by Hafia FC and Guinea of the Kwame Nkrumah trophy, the former player of Kaloum Star, of FC 105 of Libreville, the scorer that the President of Africa Sports, Simplice Zinsou regretted not having been able to recruit in his club in 1983, the striker who greatly impressed the great Zairian defender, Lobilo Boba of Vita club and Leopards to the point of making him his close friend and making Guinea his second homeland was a generous compatriot but also and above all a true patriot.
Human, sociable and generous, my brother Seydouba Bangoura was. Thanks to a simple meeting in Brussels where I was invited by my friend Abass Pablo Bangoura in July 2006 during the Italian World Cup, Seydouba Bangoura offered me without any protocol a vehicle and made himself at my disposal throughout my stay in the Belgian capital. Without noise or fanfare, he was thus with the Guineans in Conakry or passing through where he has since owned a large property.
A patriot in love with Guinea, I always had the opportunity to see this in the child of Fria each time we spoke in his office where he often invited me when our headquarters of S Transit and La Nouvelle Tribune were neighbors on 6th avenue of Sandervalia.
Close to President Lansana Conté, he was very lucid in his analysis of the latter’s actions.
He did not hide his concerns about certain excesses of power, especially at the time of the President’s illness.
The managerial sense and patriotism of the company boss, an activity in which he flourished more after a rather fruitful football career at the time in his case, distanced him from sectarianism, communitarianism by favoring the criterion of competence, loyalty and sincerity in his friendships and professional collaborations with Guineans of all origins. This spirit largely explains the prosperity of S Transit.
His fight for the mining company launched with the former Minister of Mines, Facinet Fofana, was that of a Guinean who wanted to create and share wealth with his compatriots. I was very happy to see him still on his feet and very combative after the health ordeal he went through in the 2010s in Brussels where he underwent a general surgical procedure that was complicated to say the least.
In the end, we can remember that as an athlete and business leader, Seydouba Bangoura served Guinea and was useful to the Guineans to the best of his ability.
In this period of mourning, I have a moving thought for his wife, his children, his brothers Abass Bangoura Pablo, Mohamed Aziz Sylla, his teammates of Syli National and Hafia FC and pay tribute to the memory of a true Patriot.
PLEASE ALLAH, OUR CREATOR, accept him into his eternal Paradise. Amen