He stands, spreads his arms and mimes being pulled in opposite directions. Few Premiership fans, and perhaps no managers, sympathise with African players in club versus country dilemmas. They should speak to LuaLua.
The striker is one of more than 20 Africans playing in England who is off to the biennial Cup of African Nations, starting in Egypt this week. Each has their story to tell and a good reason for being there. LuaLua may be no more than another Premiership player to us but to the people in DR Congo, a vast country with a population of more than 50million, he is the national captain and star of the one pursuit which causes rebels there to lay down their guns .
DR Congo is bleeding from a civil war which has seen more than 3m men, women and children slaughtered and has lasted seven years. “Football’s the only thing that unites the country,” said LuaLua. “That’s why I have to go to Egypt.”
You would not expect David Beckham to miss the European Championships if they clashed with a few Real Madrid games and in fairness to Portsmouth and the club’s manager, Harry Redknapp, he goes with his employers’ blessing after cutting a deal to remain at his club until after yesterday’s match against Everton.
The Congo squad assembled in Tunisia for a training camp on January 6 and LuaLua was expected to join up then. Sitting on this morning’s flight to Tunis, he will be nagged by the feeling that he cannot win. “In any sport, it’s your dream to represent your country but I hope Portsmouth fans appreciate I didn’t just walk away. I stayed as late as I could,” he says. “I had to convince the national coach (Claude Le Roy) but I got permission to stay. I didn’t want to just take off. Playing for an African country is almost too much pressure, especially when you are captain.”
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A television documentary last year about the Congolese national team painted LuaLua as a villain. Cameras followed the side before and after a World Cup qualifier at home to South Africa. 120,000 people packed into the Martyrs Stadium, Kinshasa, but LuaLua wasn’t there, having failed to turn up despite assuring Le Roy that he would. He’d forgotten to renew his passport but no one should doubt his commitment to his country.
LuaLua and his family fled from Kinshasa to the East End of London when he was nine, but the DR Congo remains in his heart and mind. “I only started going back to Congo when I played for the national team in 2003 but every time I’d return to England with more pain. I felt I had to do something for the suffering people there. I was lucky to come to England and get a nice job, and you ask yourself, ‘What have I done to deserve that?’ Just because of the way life turned out it doesn’t make me better or different to the people there.”
There but for the grace of God. LuaLua, who has strong Christian beliefs, is of the conviction that it’s his duty to use some of his wealth to help people at home. “I began thinking about it a couple of years ago,” he said. “When I used to go and play for my country I had a fan club. They’d come with flags bearing my name.
“After the games we’d get together and you had to buy them drinks and give them money. I don’t drink and I thought, ‘This money I’m spending for people to get drunk, I could be using more wisely. I could be going to hospitals and giving it to kids’.”
That’s pretty much what LuaLua started to do. The international hotel where he would stay in Kinshasa was always full of prostitutes and he spoke to them about their lives. “I’d say, ‘Why did you turn into a prostitute?’ The answer always seemed that there was nobody to support them. Some are still at school and selling themselves is their only way to get money. That’s painful. I’d ask, ‘How much do you get for the whole night?’ and they’d say something ridiculous like $40. That’s not much more than £20. And for that they’re risking their lives. They can get diseases that kill you, not just HIV. When you play international football you get spending money. I’d say, ‘Take this. You don’t have to sleep with me. Just go home’.”
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LuaLua visited hospitals and found old people who, because of poverty, had been abandoned by their families. He would go to maternity wards where mothers and their babies were effectively being kept prisoner because they could not afford to pay their medical fees, which were never more than $30. “You can’t afford to help everybody so what I’d do is pick numbers and pay for those women to be allowed home,” he said.
Finally, he decided he had to become more organised in his charitable efforts which is why he set up the Lua Foundation. He has bought land, appointed directors and building work is in progress to set up a day centre for some of Kinshasa’s disadvantaged.
He explained: “I want to help the girls who face prostitution and young boys. In Congo, when they have nothing to do, they turn to guns — and when the war comes they start killing each other. In London’s Forest Gate, where I grew up, it wasn’t easy. A few friends and cousins got into the wrong things by meeting the wrong people but what we had was a youth centre, a drop-in place, which was ideal. It had computers and games for kids.
“You could go there and have a laugh and be off the streets and out of danger. They used to take us to Bournemouth in the summer and that’s the idea I’ve got — a complex in Kinshasa where kids can play games and have a bit of food to eat, find a bit of love, play sport and maybe get some education.”
LuaLua has had grumblings from some members of his extended family who feel, rather than helping people he doesn’t know, that he should be giving all his money to kin. He feared for his relatives still in DR Congo after the last Cup of African Nations when he was made a scapegoat for his country’s failure.
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Against Tunisia, LuaLua was sent off after an opponent’s theatrical reaction to his tackle. As he left the field in tears, he passed the player on a stretcher and had to be restrained which provoked a mini-riot and the game was held up while policed quelled it. He was banned for the rest of the tournament.
“It took me six months to decide whether to return to the Congo. People took it really bad. It didn’t help that some journalists twisted the story. They only showed my reaction towards the guy, not what happened before and they said I did it to get sent off. I was worried some people would take revenge on my family.
“So now, this African Nations is really important because it’s my chance to show 2004 was a mistake. I’ve never done anything like that in my career. I was young and I was stupid to react. I felt really bad because I’d let the team and the whole country down.”
He dreams of making up for things by leading his country at least as far as the last four but, drawn in a group which includes African powerhouse Cameroon, and Togo and Angola, who have both qualified for the World Cup, it will be difficult. “What I like so much about playing for my country is you’re playing with players who are fearless. They don’t care who we’re playing, for them every game’s a war. African football has improved so much. You can see that with the teams that are going to the World Cup.
“All the countries are very even. If you’d asked me three or four years ago who were favourites for this tournament I’d have said Nigeria, Cameroon and Senegal but now every country has a chance.”
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The last time LuaLua returned from international duty he almost died from malaria, spending a week in intensive care fed by eight drips. He’d forgotten to take his malaria tablets — a mistake he won’t repeat in a hurry.
He knows he could lose his place at Pompey by going to Egypt “but in football these days your selection is never guaranteed.” The Premiership may not need African national teams, but there’s no doubt that Africa does.