Charles Livingstone Mbabazi: The African LOI cult hero, with a famous agent, who cheated death on pitch and stole Inchicore hearts, in his own words
| Published date | 15 April 2021 |
| Author | Alex Dunne |
Upon hearing that it was freezing cold and had briefly been snowing on what's supposed to be a springtime Monday morning, he could only chuckle.
The 40-year-old was brought back in his mind to his first visit to Ireland's capital, as a hopeful kid with Premier League dreams immediately hit with a bad dose of the Irish weather's cold reality.
But the League of Ireland cult hero's long-shot journey to that stage had toughened him up early and made him come of age.
The football bug bit Charles in school, playing and captaining his secondary school side and his country at underage level, before becoming one of the coaches in school as well as a player at just 14-years-old in his second year.
"Me coaching right now, that passion started young," he says.
A wandering early career ran in parallel. Sport Club Villa and Express FC at home, then away to the UAE, and back to Africa with ASEC Mimosas in the Ivory Coast, coming through the club at the same time as the likes of Kolo Toure, Didier Zokora, and Aruna Dindane.
He was present for the club's famous 1998 CAF Champions League victory, where a mostly-homegrown squad that won eight out of nine prior Ivorian titles finally clinched the continental crown against Zimbabwe's Dynamos Harare, after falling twice in the semis and once in the final in the previous six years.
The senior international scene came calling for his services in '98, and further short stints at Al-Ahly in Egypt and KCC back in Uganda followed.
A performance of his against big-hitters Senegal earned him a trip to Argentina on trial, but it was a fateful meeting with a certain former top-flight striker after a World Cup qualifier against Malawi that set up his eventual European adventures.
"After the game, an agent called John Fashanu from England, I think you've heard of him!" he laughs.
"I had a chat with him, he said he'd like to sign me, to manage my career.
"After a few months, he gave me a call and said he wanted me to come for trials with West Ham.
"But I had a problem with the visa, and the Embassy didn't want to sort it out, so I didn't travel.
"So he suggested there's a club called St Patrick's in the Republic of Ireland, he has a friend who knows a guy called Pat Dolan.
"He told me I can join them for a bit for pre-season, he said after playing in Dublin it would be easier for me to go to England.
"So, I decided to come to Dublin, and try my luck!"
Protracted negotiations ensued to get Charles over to Ireland for what seemed to just be a stepping stone to progressing to the Premier League.
And his first thoughts after stepping off the plane to Dublin in 1999?
"It was freezing cold!"
Standard really. But the club were on hand to help him warm up, if only a little bit.
"To be honest, my experience, it was completely different to what I'd been used to," he recalls.
"When I reached Inchicore I entered the stadium, I had Pat Dolan and Eamonn Collins with me. They said I should go join the training, go to the pitch.
"I told Pat: 'There's no way I'm training in this cold'.
"So they gave me a cup of coffee, they told me 'here, you'll feel warm', and I was sent out to join the lads on the field."
The buzz of the trip quickly gave way to the reality of the League of Ireland grind.
It's rare imports make an instant impact, and Mbabazi was no exception, with some Leinster Senior Cup action merely brief respite from his burdensome habituation period.
The perishing weather in the days preceding summer football, and a rapid pressing style of play pelting you with tackles and no time to drag one's feet - plus the foreign shouts on the pitches that he took a while to thoroughly understand.
"I...
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