It was a year after the 1987 coup where a hidden talent was scouted when Fiji Football Association hosted an open tournament at Govind Park in Ba during the Easter weekend.
The year 1988 has a lot of memories to cherish as it was a year for Fiji Football as well.
Fiji FA invited fourteen senior division teams to play alongside the eight premier division in which Navua also participated.
Here this unknown footballer and a high Chief Tui Namosi Ratu Suliano Matanitabua was identified and included in the national team.
Matanitabua started his football career in Labasa while playing for the All Saints Secondary School and won the Fiji Secondary School IDC beating Marist Brothers High School on penalty kicks in the final in 1985.
After completing his school he joined Fiji Military Forces and it was in 1988 when he featured for Navua in the open tournament and was scouted by coach Rudi Gutendorf.
The national squad was called into camp for a series against Queensland as they built up for their World Cup qualifiers in 1988.
He was part of the national team against the Queensland in which Fiji drew two matches and won in the final leg 3-1 in Nadi.
Matanitabua is a very humble and down to earth person and was a good team player while in the Fiji camp. He played at the left forward and had speed and skills to score goals.
While in the national camp he was approached by then Nasinu president Ashok Balgovind to join Nasinu as he was residing in Army Barracks in Nabua..
He joined Nasinu and helped the team reach IDC final in Suva 1988.
Matanitabua appeared for the national team in 1988 at the first Malenesian Cup in Solomon Islands and scored one of the three goals in the final for Fiji , with Fiji fielding only nine players ( due to fear of players lives- hostile spectators ) which is still a history in terms of Fiji winning against Solomon Islands.
He was also part of Fiji National Team that beat Australia 1-0 in Nadi and then toured USA for the three match friendly matches in California. He represented Suva in mid-nineties for one season.
Fiji FA honored him with the legends medal in 2018 with his 1988 teammates.
