It was the duel that gave Stuttgart hope again, but hope only lasted for a few moments. Silas Katompa Mvumpa put the ball past Bochum’s Danilo Soares and when he tried to shove him, Silas simply caught the attempt with his shoulder. It was the moment when all the experts at the Stuttgart bank corrected their expert forecasts, in a way that was pleasing to them. They hadn’t even expected that their winger would be able to combine his numerous individual skills into a coordinated overall action after almost nine months of injury and then a break from corona and angina.
Sprinting off, leading a tough duel, winning the tough duel, keeping your head up, hitting a cross: for a moment, that seemed to be the Silas they remembered from the time he called himself Silas Wamangituka.
At that moment, on the bench at VfB Stuttgart, they were almost certain that they would be able to do it with what was supposedly so unlikely to remain in the class. A Silas in good shape plus a Sasa Kalajdzic soon to be in good shape again: In the remaining eleven games, the two might not score 27 goals like last season (Kalajdzic 16, Silas 11), but it would be enough to avoid relegation. Does FC Augsburg have such a duo or Hertha BSC or Arminia Bielefeld? Just.
Several ligaments in the shoulder were torn, the operation followed on the same day
The experts at VfB-Bank never got as far as this point. They saw Silas sitting on the ground after his cross, face contorted in pain, one hand on his shoulder. Sven Mislintat, the head of sport, found this image uncanny, he knows that the player is not self-pitying. It quickly became clear that Silas couldn’t continue playing, and it quickly became clear that he had dislocated his shoulder.
But then an MRI was needed the next morning to understand the full extent of this won duel: several ligaments holding the shoulder apparatus were torn, and an operation was performed the same day. And the hope that Augsburg certainly does not have such a duo crumbled meekly and without saying goodbye properly. Silas Katompa Mvumpa will not be able to play again this season, which he has hardly played.
The story of Silas is the story of VfB Stuttgart and vice versa. Together they warmed the coldest hearts in pre-season, they played football straight from the adventure playground, and the head of sport Mislintat and his coach Pellegrino Matarazzo were on the verge of being honorably appointed Ministers of Youth and Family. On one occasion, after a 5-1 win in Dortmund, Silas performed a touching choreography of celebration with his youth buddies Orel Mangala and Tanguy Coulibaly, the three of them standing pretending to scribble in an open book. They want to make history together, said midfielder Mangala later.
The chapter that followed in March 2021 was not planned. A cruciate ligament in Silas’ knee tore, and with it the whole beautiful plot.
They haven’t found the lightness of those days at VfB since then, although Mislintat kept bringing new, younger adventurers to the city. critics say: because Mislintat kept bringing new, younger adventurers to town. In any case, since then, young people have been groping their way through adult life, which is also making it really difficult for them. This grown-up life keeps coming up with new nasties, injuries, illnesses and much more. And the outstanding qualities of Silas, who was missing for so long, can only be replaced by one person anyway, Silas, and he’s gone again now.
Controversial action: On the 10th match day of the pre-season, Stuttgart’s Silas Katompa Mvumpa played a solo across the field against SV Werder Bremen – only to slowly push the ball over the goal line in a provocative manner.
(Photo: Robin Rudel/imago)
They have now accepted being expelled from the ball pool at VfB, they are now trying to play more compact, adult football, and because (apart from Silas) everyone is healthy again, they still believe they can leave Augsburg or Hertha behind. But Mislintat knows that they now have a second important task at VfB: They will take care of Silas. “A situation like that isn’t fun for any player,” says the sports director, which is an enormous euphemism.
“Anyone who has something like that behind them can’t be knocked over by injuries,” says Mislintat
What a year Silas has behind him: The cruciate ligament tear was followed by the revelation accompanied by the club, according to which the player’s name was not Silas Wamangituka, but Silas Katompa Mvumpa and was not born on October 6, 1999, but on October 6, 1998 . He had “lived in constant fear in recent years” and was also “very worried” about his family in the Congo, Silas was quoted as saying at the time.
He had apparently fallen into the clutches of a dubious agent who – so the story goes – staged the impersonation scam to sever the player’s ties with his hometown club in the Congo; allegedly to cash in on those training allowances that Silas’ youth club would have conceded. The player got into a relationship of dependency, the consultant allegedly threatened to blow the whistle and withheld part of the salary.
“Anyone who has something like that behind them cannot be knocked over by two injuries,” says Mislintat. He knows the player’s will and sunny disposition and expects his smile to be seen in the dressing room again soon. Silas will probably first travel to relatives in Belgium, but will soon return to Stuttgart for rehabilitation.
When he was still playing under the name Wamangituka, Silas once scored a spectacular 80-metre solo goal against Mainz, and against Bremen he accidentally pushed the ball provocatively over the line. He was one of the big Bundesliga attractions of the previous season, Europe’s top clubs had long since become curious. Now he has lost a whole year, which could at least add a romantic emergency chapter to the story. He will probably stay in Stuttgart for another year, no matter in which league.