UBB: Madosh Tambwe, from the athletics track to the rugby pitch
Madosh Tambwe, a rugby player with an unusual path. 1, the wing could have become an athlete. 2, he is stateless
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For a first season in France, Madosh Tambwe is having a very fine campaign. The Union Bordeaux-Bègles player has established himself as one of the best wingers in the Top 14. In 13 appearances (11 starts), the Kinshasa native has scored 6 tries, including two on his debut in the French top flight, at home. Formidable efficiency. However, the 26-year-old might never have picked up a rugby ball. His first love was the athletics track.
“I was running between 10.5 and 10.7 over 100 metres, around 21.98 over 200 metres,” he explains in an interview with L’Equipe. So we can see where he gets his explosiveness, his energy and his pace on the pitch. Madosh Tambwe could therefore have hoped for a career on the track, encouraged by his mother. But after her death, Tambwe changed direction, under the influence of his brother. Watching him spiral, his brother pushed him towards rugby to give him the will to fight. “When Mum died, I was lost. I wasn't hanging around with good people, the fags, the alcohol, the weed ...,” the rugby player admitted. That is how he ended up as top scorer in the Currie Cup Under-19s with 16 tries.
https://twitter.com/UBBrugby/status/1566819274890657794
Stateless
Afterwards, Madosh Tambwe built a career in the South African league. The winger made a name for himself in the land of the Springboks, playing for several leading sides: the Lions, the Bulls and the Sharks. That even led him to apply for South African nationality. However, things were about to take an unexpected turn for him.
Having left Congo very young to move to South Africa, Madosh Tambwe decided to apply for South African nationality. The authorities refused him. And so, Congolese by birth, he has no nationality. He is stateless. “To this day, I still don't have South African nationality. It's crazy! I don't exist anywhere! I'm invisible. It's rubbish, isn't it?”
Read also: European Cups review: how did the South Africans' first participation go?