Harare giants Dynamos let a massive chance to take over the leadership of the local Premier Soccer League (PSL) slip by falling to Champions Gunners in lively match up at Rufaro, over the weekend. Gunners won the match 1 - 0, courtesy of a third minute strike by midfielder David Redhiyoni. Despite playing way below par, DeMbare had a perfect chance to at least get a point and draw level on points with leaders Motor Action when they were awarded a 61st minute penalty, but goalkeeper Washington Arubi put the ball wide, to leave DeMbare still trailing the Mighty Bulls by one point, having played the same number of games. Now,
Dynamos are faced with a situation where they require other sides, interesting including bitter rivals Highlanders and Caps United, to do them a favour to stop the Mighty Bulls’ march towards their maiden league championship. What will however be disgusting to many DeMbare followers is the fact that Dynamos had the chances to firmly put the destiny of the Championship within their hands, and failure by their players to hold the nerve and convert spot kicks, might turn out to be one of their biggest undoing.
Arubi’s penalty miss was the third by a Dynamos player since October. For a side whose penalty awards are always viewed with suspicion by their rivals, who feel that the multitudes that follow the Mbare side always put referees under pressure to award them spot kicks, DeMbare players must know better than to bury such chances when they come their way. In their last match, DeMbare needed the nerves of referee Ruzive Ruzive to order a retake of Murape Murape’s penalty, to ensure maximum points against the Mighty Bulls. Murape had put his effort wide, but the referee adjudged that Motor Action players were encroaching into the penalty area against the rules of the game, and ordered a retake. Up stepped Arubi to draw DeMbare to within a point of the Eric Rosen owned side. However, the Zimbabwe International goalkeeper could not repeat his feat against Gunners’ Tafadzwa Dube, as he put his effort wide, much to the chagrin of those occupying Vietnam Stand.
It is interesting though to note that at the beginning of the season, defender Guthrie Zhokinyu took responsibility for all of Dynamos’ spot kicks, until the game against Hwange at Rufaro Stadium in October. DeMbare again went on to lose the game 1 – 0, dropping more points which they may live to regret come end of the season. Zhokinyu missed a controversial penalty, taken after Hwange players had threatened to walk off the pitch protesting against the penalty award, given after midfielder Wonder Sithole had tumbled in the box. Zhokinyu might have later wished that Chipangano had gone ahead with their actions, as they were likely to result in the abandonment of the match and possibly awarding of points to DeMbare.
After the Zhokinyu miss, striker Evans Gwekwerere was entrusted with the penalty taking job, but even he found the going tough. Eagles goalkeeper Samuel Mafukidze dived to his right to save his effort in another league match at Rufaro, restricting Dynamos to a painful 1-1 draw – a case of 2 points lost than 1 gained. Gwekwerere was immediately sidelined from the penalty taking duties, and veteran Murape Murape came to the scene. Murape’s first chance at glory was going to be in the volatile top of the table clash against the Mighty Bulls. Having missed a seater a week earlier against bitter rivals Caps United in open play a game earlier, Murape sought to endear himself with the DeMbare faithful with the goal that was to dehorn their foes to the throne. Again, the penalty blues stuck with him. He missed, only for Ruzive and Arubi to save his day.
Missing so many penalties in the twilight of the season is likely to see Dynamos paying heavily. All, but one of the penalty misses so far have been the difference between collecting points or walking off empty handed for DeMbare. It remains to be seen whether they will regret the misses come end of season. Some circles have started suggesting that this is the effect of not having Sports Psychologists in the Zimbabwean premiership, which then sees the players failing to hold their nerve in the midst of the multitudes’ expectations. Arubi has been one of the most loved Dynamos players this season, with some stellar performances that have often earned him instant cash rewards from the Dynamos followers. His miss over the weekend might have however meted instant justice on his side’s title aspirations, turning him from a hero to villain.
Other pundits claimed that senior players at Dynamos intimidate others, hence the nerves seen on the pitch. One wonders if that is the reason for the constant change of penalty takers. Missing a penalty is common in football, but sometimes there is no better sign of confidence in a player by his teammates or coach than to ask him to take the next one. There seems to be no second chances at Dynamos. Zhokinyu scored more than 4 penalties for Dynamos from the beginning of the season, but was immediately stripped of the responsibility the day he missed the first one. Was that the right strategy? A most recent exhibition of how best to deal with a penalty miss was in the recent World Cup second round match between Ghana and Uruguay. Although he missed probably the most important of his entire career, Ghana striker Asamoah Gyan’s teammates showed a lot of belief in him, which he repaid with lots of composure when he led his teammates in the penalty shootout. Such chances don’t seem to exist at DeMbare, and one wonders who will be brave enough to step up, if they do get a penalty against Kiglon Bird tomorrow.
1. Diego Armando Maradona was born on October 30, 1960 on the outskirts of Buenos Aires.
2. Maradona made 91 appearances for Argentina, scoring 34 goals.
3. He played in four World Cup tournaments for his country.
4. He helped Boca Juniors to the League championship in 1982 before making a move to Barcelona. But in 1984, he transferred to Napoli and helped them win their only two Serie A titles to date – in 1987 and 1990.
5. Maradona holds the record for making the most number of appearances as captain of any country in a World Cup. He skippered Argentina on 16 occasions.
6. In total, however, he made 21 appearances in World Cup tournaments.
7. A 15-year-old Maradona made his professional debut on October 20, 1976 for Argentinos Juniors.
8. Maradona was part of the Argentina youth squad that won the 1979 Youth World Cup in Japan.
9. On February 27, 1977, a 16-year old Maradona made his international debut against Hungary at the Bombonera Stadium in Buenos Aires.
10. He has a tattoo of Che Guevara on his arm.
11. Maradona holds the record for suffering the most number of fouls in a World Cup – 53, during the 1986 World Cup in Mexico.
12. He also holds the record for the most number of fouls suffered in one game in a World Cup, when Italy fouled him 23 times in the 1982 edition of the tournament.
13. Maradona skippered Argentina to World Cup glory in 1986, beating West Germany 3-2 in the Final.
14. He also won the Golden Ball for being the tournament's outstanding player.
15. Diego scored using his hand in the quarter-final of the 1986 World Cup against England. When he was quizzed about the incident, he said: “The goal was scored a little bit by the Hand of God, a little by the head of Maradona.”
16. He won the Serie A with Napoli in 1987, a feat that would be repeated in 1990. He also won the Uefa Cup in 1989.
17. In the 1994 World Cup in USA, Maradona played only two games – scoring one goal against Greece – as he was sent home after failing a doping test.
18. Maradona married Claudia Villafane on November 7, 1989 in Buenos Aires, but the pair divorced in 2004.
19. In 2005, Maradona started hosting a talk show on Argentinian television. Pelé was his main guest on his very first show.
20. He was confirmed as the manager of Argentina in October 2008.
21. During his reign as manager, Argentina equalled their worst ever defeat by losing 6-1 to Bolivia in the World Cup qualifiers. This led to Maradona taking a fair amount of criticism. And when his side did qualify for the tournament, this is what he had to say: “To those who did not believe: now suck my d**k – I'm sorry ladies for my words – and keep on sucking it. I am either white or black. I will never be grey in my life. You treated me as you did. Now keep on sucking d**ks. I am grateful to my players and to the Argentinian people. I thank no one but them. The rest, keep on sucking d**ks.” Fifa banned him for two months after the outburst.
22. Maradona’s managerial debut for Argentina was on November 19, 2008. On that day, his side took on Scotland at Hampden Park and emerged victorious with a 1-0 scoreline.
23. On June 22, 2010, Maradona said of the Jabulani ball: "I would ask all Fifa directors to stop talking about me and to start working on having a proper football. This ball is useless. It's impossible to control.”
24. In a press conference prior to the first knockout round in the 2010 World Cup, Maradona jumped over the barrier to embrace former Napoli team-mate Salvatore Bagni, a footballer turned pundit. Following the gregarious greeting, Bagni said: “Even knowing him as I have done all these years, Diego always does something to surprise you.”
25. Maradona vehemently defended a goalless Lionel Messi on July 2, 2010 when he said: “Anyone saying he didn't have a great World Cup is an idiot.”
26. Former team-mate Jorge Valdano said of him in 2006: “He is someone many people want to emulate, a controversial figure, loved, hated, who stirs great upheaval, especially in Argentina... Stressing his personal life is a mistake. Maradona has no peers inside the pitch, but he has turned his life into a show, and is now living a personal ordeal that should not be imitated.”
27. The Argentine Football Association (AFA) put in a request to Fifa to retire the No10 shirt in honour of Maradona. The request was denied.
28. Argentinos Juniors have named their stadium after Maradona – Estadio Diego Armando Maradona.
29. Maradona after beating England in the 1986 World Cup quarter-final: “It was as if we had beaten a country, more than just a football team.”
30. Maradona in 1996: “I was, I am and I always will be a drug addict. A person who gets involved in drugs has to fight it every day.”
31. In 2000, Fifa decided to do a one-off Player of the Century award for the new millennium. After eventually arriving at the decision that Pelé and Maradona would share the award, the Brazilian said: “If he thinks he's the best player of the century that's his problem.”
32. Asked once to name his starting XI in 1990, Argentina manager Carlos Bilardo famously said: “Maradona and ten others.”
33. Maradona was appointed the sports vice-president of Boca Juniors in 2005. He quit a year later.
34. Serbian filmmaker Emir Kusturica has made a documentary about Maradona, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008.
35. In 1986, former England manager Sir Bobby Robson famously said: “With Maradona, Arsenal could have won the World Cup.”
36. Ex-England defender Phil Neal said of an 18-year-old Maradona in 1978: “The kid is just unbelievable – he is the best I have ever seen.”
37. Fans started a ‘Church of Maradona’ in Buenos Aires in 1998. The year is marked by Maradona’s birthday every year. October 30, 2010 is 50 DD [“despues de Diego”]," or ‘After Diego’.
38. Maradona’s second goal against England – which came just four minutes after the ‘Hand of God’ – in the quarter-final of the World Cup in 1986, saw the diminutive footballer dribble past opposition defenders to eventually beat Peter Shilton to make the score 2-0. Fifa called this the Goal of the Century.
39. Maradona has a lookalike puppet in the French show ‘Les guignols de l'info’.
40. He is good friends with Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
41. Maradona had to leave Napoli in 1991 after failing a drug test for cocaine.
42. The Argentine refused to go into the opening ceremony of the 2006 World Cup in Germany, saying: “I'm not here to look at bloody Pelé walking around.”
43. In an ongoing war of words with the Brazilian this year, Pelé said during Maradona’s reign as national team boss: “But it isn't Maradona's fault. It is the fault of whoever put him in charge.” The Argentine hit back later, saying: “Pele should go back to the museum. And stay there.”
44. Italian officials revealed last year that Maradona owes them €37-million. More than half this sum is interest on the original debt.
45. Maradona averaged 0.526 goals-per-game in domestic club competitions.
46. He is the third highest goalscorer for Argentina, behind Gabriel Batistuta and Hernan Crespo.
47. Scotland’s Tartan Army have a chant in praise of Maradona for sending their neighbours out of the 1986 World Cup.
48. Maradona on World Cup ’98: “The players have all got square feet. They are like Robocops, they have more need of lubricant than massage. I don't believe the tournament could be worse.”
49. The IIMSAM (Intergovernmental Institution for the Use of Micro-algae Spirulina Against Malnutrition) appointed Maradona as its Goodwill Ambassador in 2006.
50. In a book on Maradona in 1997, Argentinian psychologist and author Gustavo Bernstein noted: “Maradona is our maximum term of reference. No-one embodies our essence better. No-one bears our emblem more nobly. To no other, in the last 20 years, have we offered up so much passion. Argentina is Maradona, Maradona is Argentina.”
Atlas, the mythical Greek god who supposedly held the pillars of the universe would have smiled in admiration in the manner in which Dynamos have dominated Zimbabwean football.
For decades, De Mbare have been the most dominant force in Zimbabwean football with a proud tradition that has not been easily earned. Since its inception in 1963, Dynamos have won the league title more than any other club. During the days of the Rhodesia National Football League, Dynamos won the championship in 1963, 1965, 1966, 1970, 1976, and 1978.
They followed this up with successes in 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1991, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998, and 2007.
Dynamos have also won the country's major knockout tournament, the Castle Cup, which was later known as the Zifa Cup. The team clinched the Zifa Cup on countless occasions. The team also won major tournaments in 1976, 1985, 1988, 1989, 1996, and 2007.
Their players have also won the soccer star of the year award more than any other team with the legendary George Shaya holding the record of five individual titles, three more than his closest rivals Peter Ndlovu, then of Highlanders and Stanley Ndunduma of CAPS United and later Black Rhinos with two each.
Shaya took the title in 1969, 1972, 1975, 1976, and 1977. Other Dynamos winners of the award were Ernest Kamba in 1973, David Mandigora in 1980, Japhet Mparutsa in 1982, Moses Chunga in 1987, Memory Mucherahowa in 1994, Tauya Murehwa in 1995 and Murape Murape in 2007.
Some of Dynamos' leaders among them, Morrison Sifelani, Godfrey Japajapa, Lesley Gwindi, Wellington Nyatanga, have used the club as a platform to lead the game at national level in the Premier Soccer League and the Zimbabwe Football Association.
Dynamos' excellence has even extended beyond the country's borders. The club holds the record of being the only Zimbabwean club to reach the final of any continental title having reached the final of the Caf Champions League in 1998 under the stewardship of George Shaya, Thaban Lloyd Hove and Lesley Gwindi with the late Spencer Njagu doing the groundwork from down under.
Dynamos' success in Pan African football in 1998 was followed by a Confederation of African Football (Caf) ranking as one of the top six teams in African football just before the draw for the 2010 Caf Champions League.
The club was formed during the days of political tension between the whites and blacks.
During the days of Rhodesia Black people were not allowed to mix with their white counterparts in n sport. So the Black players took part in the then Rhodesia Amateur Football Association while the White footballers played in the then professional league. In 1960, Len Brown, a reporter with the Rhodesia Herald invited a group of black footballers to join the white dominated Salisbury City.
In 1963, there was a dramatic collapse of Salisbury City, leaving the black footballers with nowhere to showcase their skills. 'The collapse' said Benard Marriot Lusengo, 'was political'. ‘It was a way of trying to avoid Black soccer players to participate in the same team with White players because the Black players had shown that they were better footballers.'
Dynamos 1963 line up
Unhappy with the situation, other Black players also broke away from Salisbury United and together with those from Salisbury City they gathered at house number 86 Mbirimi Drive in Mbare for a meeting. The players Josiah Akende, Danny Thomas, Patrick Dzvene, Sydney Karungaire, Alois Meskano, Richard Chiminya, Jairos Banda, Benard Marriot Lusengo, Lameck Mlambo, Obediah Sarupinda, Freddy Mkwesha, Alan Hlatwayo, and Simon Machaya met at Sam Dauya's house.
They agreed to form an all Black football team and one Nercacio Murambiwa who had heard of a Russian team called Dynamos Kiev suggested that the team be called Dynamos and so started the great team. Ted Bridges of the Tobacco Sales Company gave Sarupinda, who was coach of the side, 50 pounds, a first aid kit, a set of uniforms, and soccer balls to start the team.
Bridges' company also provided the lorry that ferried the players to matches and also employed some of the players, including Sarupinda, at his company. From these humble beginnings Dynamos rose to become not only the best football team in the country but one of the best in Africa.
The club still honours its founding fathers. Chiminya is chairman of the club's board of directors. The board of directors is made up of the founding fathers and is the supreme decision making body at the popular Harare club. It is the body that appoints the executive which in turn runs the club on day to day basis.
But as problems characterise the daily existence of the club, it is the same founding fathers that are now being accused of destroying the same house that they built. Players go for months without pay despite the huge crowds that attend the team's matches. The team does not have a bus or property.
Fighting has become De Mbare's daily life. Literally everyone associated with Dynamos has become a Warrior. Finger pointing is the order of the day. The club has become the Pakistan of Zimbabwean football with endless fighting and squabbles among the many factions that have come up.
Former defender Henry Chari said the fact that De Mbare had three chairpersons in the past three seasons showed the extent of the confusion at Dynamos. Farai Munetsi is the current chairman. Last year, it was Partson Moyo while George Shaya was the chairman in 2008.
Shaya who was chairman in 1998 when De Mbare reached the final of the Caf Champions League, is now being treated like a dissident in his own home. He has been barred from attending the team's games for siding with another faction. He now fears for his life after threats for siding with a faction led by former secretary and Chairman Ignatius Pamire.
Chari blamed the Dynamos problems on the failure by the founder members to transform the club into a company. 'These founding fathers have destroyed the club. They just appoint people at will and this has created problems,' said Chari.
'People are just picked from the streets and then asked to lead the club. There should be a system in place in the appointment of the club's executive,' added Chari. 'There should also be a term of office rather than appoint somebody today, then fire him tomorrow. Dynamos is a big club for one to achieve results he needs time in office.'
'People are just picked from the streets and then asked to lead the club'But Chiminya, the head of the founder members said some the former players without jobs were responsible for the chaos at the club as they were always trying to find comfortable positions within the system. 'Just look at the number of former players involved in the conflicts and you will see what I am talking about' he said.'
Former club vice chairman and secretary Stan Kasukuwere said the fact that the board of directors appointed the executive breeds corruption. 'People can buy their way into the club even if they are not football people,' said Kasukuwere. 'That is the reason why there are always problems at Dynamos. The appointments are not done with football in mind.'
Former Dynamos Supporters Association secretary Tendai Makoni said Dynamos should go back to the old days when elections were held to choose the executive.
The club supporter said it was important that Dynamos was turned into a company and listed on the stock exchange. He added that the founder members should be put on pension to enjoy the benefits of forming the team than leading it to destruction. 'In that way, there won't be any problems. The shareholders will be there to control the club with qualified executives running the team on day to day basis,' said Makoni.
Chiminya said they cannot just give away the only thing that belongs to them. 'A father cannot run away from his house because there are problems. The club belongs to us and we will do everything to ensure that it remains successful.'
The prospects of peace at Dynamos are looking gloom. The club has created too many 'warlords' that those who are in positions today are always looking over their shoulders to see who wants to topple them. As long as such a situation continues to exist, Dynamos will remain in their current position.
EDITOR — I read with amusement the story in your paper recently that Zifa was planning to sell its "haunted" 53 Livingstone Avenue headquarters. Cuthbert Dube, Zifa president, believes Zifa House has become "a cursed place that should soon be vacated and sold." This is coming from a whole administrator that we understand sits on the board of some companies. I am sure that Dube, who is said to have had his life saved by some Nigerian "prophet", is taking mysticism rather too far. The truth of the matter is that football in this country has been failed by the administrators per se not where they stay or work. The ongoing Tom Saintfiet saga, which started under the very nose of Dube, for example, has nothing to do with Zifa House, no matter how ugly it looks now. What happened was that the officials, whose very houses could then well be cursed given their blundering, chose to ignore sense and appoint the promising Mapeza. They then appointed Sainfiet and led him to work without papers, which rightly earned him banishment and subsequent rejection by Immigration authorities. In the first place, Zifa had "poached" the Belgian gaffer from Namibia. Were they led by evil spirits? On the other hand, corruption has gnawed at our football even from Far Eastern encla-ves thousands of kilometres away from Zifa House. No, Mr Dube it is nothing to do with the place, it is about the persons who have inhabited it. Zimbabwe should have been on top in terms of football were it not for the bungling of Zifa. We cannot produce another Peter Ndlovu because there simply is no junior policy to nurture young talent. Our campaign for continental showing is under stress because of poor leadership that is characterised by confusion. Whereas other countries like South Africa and Nigeria are flaunting their female talent in the game, our team is in the doldrums and we wonder what happened to the energy we had gathered at the turn of the new millenium. No, Mr Dube, it is not about the Zifa House but its occupants, in their succession. Let us be rational about it. A bad administrator blames his office. Mary Murungu. Craneborne, Harare.
By Robson Sharuko of The Herald (www.herald.co.zw)
TIMES have certainly been hard in Zimbabwean football -- the gloom brought by Asiagate, the chaos triggered by the abortive recruitment of Belgian coach Tom Saintfiet and a 2012 Nations Cup campaign that remains on the edge after four dropped points in two matches that ended in draws.
We still wait for the BancABC Sup8r Cup final to be played, almost a month behind schedule, the Premiership remains unbranded, its best players like Ashley Rambanapasi now play with a passport in their socks just in case a move appears on the horizon and the Division One leagues have turned into a big joke that teams can get as many as six walkovers in a season.
Ninety percent of the Premiership clubs are on the verge of bankruptcy, the smaller boys are unlikely to survive another season without a major sponsor coming on board, the bigger clubs have been feeling the heat for some time and their coffers are empty and fears that the top-flight league could collapse, if it doesn't get a massive financial injection, are real.
Amid the gloom all that we can do is just to wait.
Waiting for Supersport Africa to finally see the light that the breeding grounds that gave the world Peter Ndlovu are still fertile and crying out loudly for the changes that follow when the pay-per-view television giant brands a domestic league the way they have done in Zambia, Kenya, Angola and South Africa.
Waiting for the domestic sponsors to see that, despite our Achilles Heel as a community blighted by a cancer that makes it virtually impossible for us to manage our affairs without a touch of controversy, we still have a massive market that is worth the risk of engagement and the big crowd at the Harare Derby last Sunday was a public show of our strength.
Waiting for someone to see that for all our shortcomings as a football community, and the destabilising impact that the lack of funding has on our growth into a powerful force, we still can produce a team that is good enough to be ranked among the six best clubs on the continent and force the continental leaders to reward us with four slots in the Champions League and the Confederations Cup.
Waiting for someone to heal the wounds inflicted over the past few months on a polarised domestic football leadership that was split along regional lines and building the bridges that will enable us to see that there is value in working as a united front, the way our brothers in Botswana are doing, rather than working as wayward platoons of rebellious militia.
But amid all the gloom, it's difficult to ignore the rainbow of hope that has filtered through the dark clouds hanging over Zimbabwean football and the sensational performance of Knowledge Musona, in powering Kaizer Chiefs to a comprehensive victory in the Soweto Derby before 75 000 fans at Soccer City on Saturday, was a breath of fresh air to a community desperate for a feel-good story.
Never in the history of the Soweto Derby which officially started in 1985 when the South African league was finally turned, from a haven of rebellious fiefdoms divided by the ghost of the race relations that blighted their society, into an orderly national league, had this flagship fixture been so dominated by a 20-year-old, with such boyish looks of innocence, he would find it difficult to frighten a church mouse.
Never in the history of the Soweto Derby had one man, just out of his age of innocence having recently waved goodbye to his sweet teenage years, been so dominant that he shaped the game in his own image, giving it the goals that made the difference, terrorising the opponents as if they were second-grade foes and not the Mighty Bucs and when he wasn't scoring goals, he was forcing them into errors to score own goals.
Never in the history of the Soweto Derby had a player, who had just played two Nations Cup qualifiers for his country and scored just one goal in those matches, turned on such an outstanding show that even the biggest selling South African football magazine, Kick-Off, were left with no option but to give him a perfect 10 out of 10 mark in their player ratings.
Never in the history of the Soweto Derby had a young assassin played with such a smile, but still with such devastating effect, it was simply difficult to hate him, even if you were in the opposition and bearing the brunt of his destructive force, and Musona's performance last Saturday will remain embedded in the hearts and minds of all who were privileged witnesses to this beautiful story.
For the record it was the biggest winning margin, by either side, in the Soweto Derby in the last 15 meetings, going back almost eight years, between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates -- the two giants who dominate the South African football landscape.
The first goal was made in Norton, Musona's hometown, and delivered in the majestic surroundings of Soccer City, via a helping hand from a deflection from a winger from Cape Town called Diane Klate, after the Smiling Assassin had carved some space in the box, jinxed his way down the byline and then rolled a dangerous ball that was turned home by Klate for an own goal.
The second one was a penalty, after he was brought down by Lucky Lekgwathi who must still be having nightmares about that derby, in general, and Musona in particular, and it was hard to believe the composure of this 20-year-old as he took responsibility, in a team featuring World Cup stars like Siphiwe Tshabalala, and sending the goalkeeper the wrong way with a cool conversion.
The third was the best of the lot, a sudden burst of speed clearing him away from the defender and his searing pace giving him a slight advantage of the advancing goalkeeper but it was the touch, of class, that lifted the ball over the 'keeper and the finish, with a diving header to beat the challenge of the rapidly advancing defender, was crisp and ended the game as a contest.
View From South Africa
Melissa Reddy writes for the South African website, Football365.co.za, and recently blogged on the impact that Musona and his fellow Zimbabwean forward, Nyasha Mushekwi, have made in football in that country. "When Kaizer Chiefs and Mamelodi Sundowns began annexing Zimbabwe's talent, the South African media was awash with headlines screaming 'Buy one, get two free', while fans coined the terms Zimba Chips and BraZIMilians to describe the purchasing trend of the glamour clubs," wrote Reddy."The country's award-winning writers, meanwhile, were furious that Amakhosi and Downs were paying for 'cheap labour' rather than investing in young South Africans or splashing the cash on one of the nation's exports who were feeling a little homesick or grew tired of counting the scratches on the benches in Europe.
"Knowledge Musona arrived at Naturena after being scouted by a Chiefs party who were privy to a Division One game featuring Aces Youth Academy in Zimbabwe."Together with Thomas Sweswe and Zhaimu Jambo, the Smiling Assassin joined the Soweto giants at the beginning of the 2009/2010 season amidst disdain from the club's legends and supporters.
"After the signing of the trio, former Amakhosi star Malombo Lechaba told the Daily Dispatch: 'It is a major concern that a club with so many sponsors can fail to dig deep into its pockets and get quality players.'
"The criticism was no different in the case of Nyasha Mushekwi, who was tracked by Chiefs, but ended up at Chloorkop.
"When Amakhosi missed out on their target, Mushekwi was derided as a basketball player, something Sundowns goalkeeper Brian Baloyi warned the opposition's defenders not to read into: 'After Kaizer Chiefs lost him there were some negative reports that came out saying he is a basketball player, but you will see a different player,' said the veteran stopper. 'With what he's got now he is going to be one of the best strikers in the league.'
"There may not have been a massive welcoming party to greet the players when they arrived at their respective clubs, but at the moment, the Premier Soccer League, the supporters and those hacks who suffer from short-term memory syndrome can't get enough of the Zim duo.
"Why this story is important?
"The two young strikers serve as a reminder for the South African Football Association to heavily invest in development. If a country that has only just seen an upturn in its disastrous economic situation can produce such promising youngsters without any form of nurturing, imagine the pool of talent Bafana Bafana would be afforded if some emphasis was placed on harnessing our gifted youth?
"Anyone who doubted the Zimbabwe duo when they made the switch to South Africa must surely be eating several servings of humble pie at the moment.
"Vladimir Vermezovic has admitted that Musona is the best striker Chiefs have in their ranks, while Antonio Lopez Habas paid special tribute to the influential cameo role Mushekwi played on Saturday night. At the start of the season, Katlego Mphela was the favourite to land the Golden Boot, with Knowledge getting a punt or two, but his countryman wasn't even given a mention.
"But we believe the duo will be more than just giving 'Killer' sleepless nights. Habas cannot afford to overlook Mushekwi in his starting XI much longer, while Vlad V has admitted he needs to build the team around his young gem. With both sides' pushing for the title, the Zimbabweans have emerged as their trump cards.
"They don't look so cheap now, do they?"
Goals, Goals And More Goals
Musona and Mushekwi, now known as the Double M striking force, were on target on Wednesday as Zimbabwe's Warriors beat Mozambique 3-1 in their backyard in Maputo in an international friendly played under blustery conditions at the Maxaquene Stadium.
Mushekwi's goal-scoring instincts are beyond question and the good thing about this partnership is that it offers contrast, which is important, with two vastly different players -- one who is lightweight and relies on his brain, skill and pace and the other who is heavyweight and relies on his power, an eye for goal and lightning pace.
Both are strong in the air, which is another advantage, and with Mushekwi (23) and Musona (20), they are both young enough to keep learning and, crucially, to keep improving and turn into a fierce striking force that could destroy opponents and take the Warriors to the Promised Land.
The Warriors can rise again, no doubt about that, and the performance of the emerging crop of players, who are ready to fill in the void that is being left by the old guard, and long after the shadow cast by Asiagate has disappeared, we will rise as a strong and powerful football nation if we just get our cards right.
Of course, beating a weakened Mozambique can't complete our fairytale in terms of our bid to qualify for the 2012 Nations Cup finals and it is very clear that the Eagles of Mali will provide stiffer opposition, both in their backyard and here in Harare, and we will have to survive a storm on an Atlantic Ocean island when we go to Cape Verde.
But little Botswana have been showing us, day-in-and-day-out, week-in-and-week-out and month-in-and-month-out, that there is nothing to fear about the West or North African dinosaurs that used to control of our football, either by hook or crook, and the Zebras' performance in their quest to qualify for the 2012 Nations Cup finals has simply been brilliant.
On Wednesday little Botswana beat Tunisia 1-0 in Gaborone, the second time they have beaten them in these qualifiers after winning in Tunis, to virtually guarantee themselves a place at the 2012 Nations Cup finals -- the first time the Zebras will be playing at the tournament.
Midfielder Jerome Ramatlhakwane scored the priceless goal in Gaborone, which moved the Zebras six points clear in the group, after a goalkeeping blunder by the Tunisian goalkeeper to heap further misery on the North Africans who were still reeling from Esperance's 1-6 humiliation by TP Mazembe in the Champions League final.
But how the Zebras have rebounded from a team whose soul was torn apart by a crisis, torched by their 1-4 defeat at the hands of China in an international friendly on September 30 last year that sparked allegations of match-fixing, into a competitive team about to qualify for the Nations Cup finals in exactly one year, is what should act as a template as we try to rebuild the Warriors.
The Zebras have shown that, if you handle your crisis well, you can find the strength to rise from adversity and while the Botswana Football Association's disciplinary committee ruled that the match in China was fixed, the BFA did not suspend the players who featured in that controversial game.
Instead the BFA board felt that their chief executive Mooketshi "Tosh" Kgotlele, who didn't travel on that trip to China, was guilty of failing to adhere to procedure, concealing vital information and was generally dishonest in his dealings and was the fall guy in the challenges that faced the Zebras on that tour.
Kgotlele, who denies the match-fixing charges, was dismissed from his job in April this year and has since filed a lawsuit against the Botswana Football Association against unlawful dismissal.
We certainly don't know what might have happened on other tours by Botswana to Asia or elsewhere in the world because the BFA's investigations centred on that trip to China last September where the players ended up being stranded, needing money for an unbudgeted extra night's accommodation.
The key point here is that for all the drama that has been happening in the corridors of the BFA, what the Botswana football authorities have done well is to make sure that the shape of their national team remains intact and they have been rewarded, of course, by the Zebras' sensational campaign which has taken them within touching distance of a place at the 2012 Nations Cup finals.
The BFA leadership did not bring down their entire house, because they believed it had been invaded by a cockroach, but they searched for the insect, while keeping their structure intact, because they knew that they would soon need the cover of the roof when the rains start falling.
Parties exploded in Botswana on Wednesday following the Zebras' 1-0 win over Tunisia and what mattered, in those celebrations, was the fact that the country was within touching distance of a place at the Nations Cup finals and certainly not the controversy that had plagued some of the players, who were now the heroes on Wednesday, during a trip to China last year.
So much has been written about Mushekwi and company because they happened to have been part of an unauthorised trip to Asia last year that turned out to be controversial and a number of experts have given their views with others even claiming that Zifa have been ordered by Fifa to suspend the players who would be found guilty of having featured in a fixed game.
Match-fixing has no role in any society and it has to be crushed, by all means possible, but the same Fifa rules that apply for Botswana, with all the problems they faced since last September, should also apply to Zimbabwe and if the players in that Zebras team were not suspended, why then are we seemingly so desperate to ensure that our players are suspended?
If the BFA disciplinary committee returned a verdict that the Zebras' match against China was certainly fixed, why then did they not attract the Fifa sanctions by not suspending their players, who are now on the verge of creating history, while we are told day-in-and-day-out that Fifa is saying that our players have to face the music simply because they might have ended up being used as pawns?
I was reading a statement by the Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture David Coltart on the controversy surrounding Asiagate and the good lawyer seemed to strike the right baton by saying that he didn't believe in the punishment of players whom he considered powerless pawns in the game.
I'm certainly not Mushekwi's advocate but what I can see in this young man is a good future, not only for himself as a striker, but also for his country - the Warriors brand that he represents in the jungles of international football.
When we needed him most, during the Cosafa Senior Challenge Cup final against Zambia at Rufaro last year, a half-fit Mushekwi rose to the occasion and scored twice against Chipolopolo in a 3-1 win for the Warriors to send a full-house into delirium.
This season he was leading the goal-scoring charts in the Confederations Cup, scoring at will for CAPS United, and taking them to their furthest spot in the competition, the final qualifying round, which they would probably have won had Mushekwi, Method Mwanjali and Lionel Mtizwa played against Al-Hilal who lost a penalty shootout semi-final contest against Club Sfaxien last week.
He has also made a storming start to his debut season in South Africa, scoring goals regularly, and on Wednesday he scored twice for the Warriors in their 3-1 win over Mozambique in an international friendly.
1. Pelé scored a total of 1 283 first-class goals, including 77 for Brazil.
2. He won three World Cups, two World Club Championships and nine Sao Paulo State Championships.
3. Pelé was named after American inventor Thomas Edison, his real name being Edson Arantes do Nascimiento.
4. Pelé was signed by Santos when he was 15. He scored four goals on his league debut in a match against FC Corinthians on 7 September, 1956.
5. Waldemar de Brito, another great Brazilian forward, is credited with discovering Pelé, taking him to Santos and telling them then that he was going to be “the greatest football player in the world”.
6. At 17, Pelé became the youngest ever winner of a World Cup. He also scored twice in the Final against home side Sweden.
7. Pelé was appointed as Minister of Sport in Brazil in 1995, serving until 1998.
8. He was voted Athlete of the Century by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1999.
9. In 1997, Pelé was given an honorary British Knighthood.
10. On the 19 November 1969, Pelé scored his 1 000th career goal. Hundreds raced onto the pitch to mob the Brazilian star and it took over 30 minutes for the game to resume.
11. At Santos, 19th November is known as ‘Pele Day’ to celebrate the anniversary of his 1 000th goal.
12. Pelé is 5th on the all-time World Cup goalscorers list with 12 - although only the second highest-placed Brazilian behind Ronaldo.
13. When Pelé retired, JB Pinheiro, the Brazilian ambassador to the United Nations, said: “Pelé played football for 22 years, and in that time he did more to promote world friendship and fraternity than any other ambassador anywhere.”
14. In 1967, a 48-hour ceasefire was declared in Nigeria so that Federal and Rebel troops could watch Pelé play on a visit to the war-torn nation.
15. Pelé said in 2006: “For 20 years they have asked me the same question, who is the greatest? Pele or Maradona? I reply that all you have to do is look at the facts – how many goals did he score with his right foot or with his head?”
16. When Pelé played for the New York Cosmos, so many of his opponents wanted to swap shirts with him that the club had to give each of their opponents a shirt after every match. “Pelé was the main attraction,” says Gordon Bradley, one of the club's coaches at the time. “Sometimes we had to take 25 or 30 shirts with us to a match, otherwise we'd never have got out of the stadium alive.”
17. Pelé made a cameo appearance in the film Mike Bassett: England manager, in which he was interviewed by the broadcaster Martin Bashir. He laughs off England's chances of winning the World Cup.
18. Pelé on the importance of football stars: “When football stars disappear, so do the teams, and that is a very curious phenomenon. It is like in the theatre, in a play, where there is a great star. If the star is not well, the whole cast suffers.”
19. Pelé has helped raise millions for charitable causes, including Great Ormond Street and Harlem Street Soccer.
20. Noted English football writer Geoffrey Green once declared: “Di Stefano was manufactured on earth, Pelé was made in heaven.”
21. On August 1 2010, Pelé was introduced as the Honorary President of a revived New York Cosmos.
22. Pelé once said: “A penalty is a cowardly way to score.”
23. In March 2003, Brazilian model Gisele Bundchen was offered special intensive training in flag-waving in advance of the 32nd Brazilian Grand Prix. Why? Organisers wanted her to do a better job than soccer star Pelé, the previous year's flag waver, who got ‘distracted’ and failed to notice Michael Schumacher crossing the finish line!
24. “How do you spell Pelé?” the Times of London once declared. “G-O-D”.
25. Pelé and Maradona are hardly friends. Earlier this year Pelé said of the Argentinian: “He is not a good example for the youth. He had the God-given gift of being able to play football, and that is why he is lucky.” Maradona's response: “Who cares what Pelé says? He belongs in a museum.”
26. England World Cup-winning captain Bobby Moore on Pelé: “The most complete player I've ever seen.”
27. His family gave him the nick-name ‘Dico’. He did not get the nickname Pelé until he started schooling. During his school days, he used to pronounce the name of the local Vasco da Gama goalkeeper Bile as Pile. Hence, a classmate of his gave him the nickname Pelé.
28. Pelé‘s father once scored five headed goals in one game, a feat that Pelé was never able to replicate. The most headers Pelé ever scored in a game was four.
29. Former Manchester City and England star Rodney Marsh once said of Pelé: “Comparing Gascoigne to Pelé is like comparing Rolf Harris to Rembrandt.”
30. Pelé’s header against Brazil in the 1970 World Cup Final was their 100th World Cup goal.
31. His first World Cup finals goal came against Wales in the 1958 quarter-final. Brazil won 1-0.
32. Since April 1994 Pelé has been married to psychologist and gospel singer Assíria Lemos Seixas.
33. Pelé on being a role-model: “Every kid around the world who plays soccer wants to be Pelé. I have a great responsibility to show them not just how to be like a soccer player, but how to be like a man.”
34. Pelé on achievement: “Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.”
35. Pelé is mentioned in the song ‘Ghetto Superstar’ by the rapper Pras.
36. In 2000, Pelé was named second in the BBC's Sportsman of the Century’ award. Boxing legend Muhammad Ali came first.
37. Tarcisio Burgnich, the Italian defender who marked Pelé in the 1970 World Cup finals, said afterwards: “I told myself before the game he's made of skin and bones just like everyone else, but I was wrong.”
38. In Brazil he is often called ‘Pérola Negra’, which means Black Pearl.
39. The Brazilian government declared Pelé an official national treasure in 1961 to prevent him from being transferred out of the country.
40. In 1993, Pelé was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame.
41. To persuade Pelé to sign for the New York Cosmos in 1975, Clive Toye, the team's general manager, said: “Don't go to Italy, don't go to Spain, all you can do is win a championship. Come to the US and you can win a country.”
42. Pelé’s first football team was formed with a bunch of friends from his neighbourhood, and they called themselves ‘the shoeless ones’.
43. In Brazil, Coca-Cola sponsors a Pelé museum on wheels that travels throughout the country.
44. Cristiano Ronaldo said: “Pelé is the greatest player in football history, and there will only be one Pelé.”
45. Pelé is the only player to have been a part of three World Cup winning teams.
46. On November 21 1964, Pelé scored eight goals against as Santos ran riot against Botafogo to register a monumental 11-0 victory.
47. Pelé scored 92 hat-tricks, and scored four goals on 31 occasions, five on six occasions, and once scored eight.
48. As a boy, Pelé used to play with a sock stuffed with paper as he could not afford to buy a football.
49. Pelé on winning: “If you are first you are first. If you are second, you are nothing.”
50. Pelé has worked as a UNICEF Goodwill ambassador and as a United Nations ambassador, working to protect the environment and fight corruption in Brazil.
51. Pelé came out of international retirement to play one last game for Brazil on October 6, 1976 against club side Flamengo, who won the match 2-0. His last international game for Brazil, however, was a 2-2 draw with Yugoslavia on July 18, 1971.
52. On October 1, 1977, Pelé played his last game as a footballer as Santos played New York Cosmos at the Giants Stadium. He played the first half of the game for the American club, and the second half for Santos.
53. Brazil never lost a game when Pelé and the legendary Garrincha played together.
54. He holds the record for the most number of goals scored for the national team, which is a record that has stood for almost 40 years.
55. Pelé scored Brazil's 100th World Cup goal with his head.
56. Pelé had a video game named after him back in the 1980s called ‘Pelé’s Soccer’.
57. MMA (mixed martial arts) fighter Jose Landi-Jons was nicknamed ‘Pelé’ after him.
58. Dutch artist Dick Brynestein made a drawing of him and called him Pietje Pele.
59. His presence in the USA helped boost average attendance across the league by almost 80 percent from 1975 (7 597) to 1977 (13 584).
60. Scored his first hat-trick for Santos against Lavras on June 9, 1957.
61. Pelé made his first appearance for New York Cosmos on June 5, 1975, against Dallas Tornadoes. He managed to score on his debut, with the game ending in a 2-2 draw.
62. Pelé starred in Escape to Victory, a World War II drama about a team of prisoners of war who play their Nazi captors in a football match. Unsurprisingly, he played the team's star attacker, Corporal Luis Fernandez, who hailed from Trinidad and Tobago.
63. In 2005, Pelé fronted an advertising campaign for the drug Viagra, and was widely credited for breaking the taboo about speaking or receiving treatment for erectile dysfunction.
64. American forward Edson Buddle is named after the great Brazilian. “I thought naming him Pelé would be too much pressure,” his dad revealed. “Edson not many people would know.”
65. As he prepared to kick off in a game during Mexico '70, Pelé gestured to the referee that he needed to tie his laces. The cameras panned in to reveal the forward's Puma boots — the company subsequently experienced a huge sales boost.
66. Pelé scored three or more goals a staggering 129 times during his career.
67. Pelé has never liked his nickname, admitting it sounds like "baby-talk".
68. Pelé’s 1000th goal was a penalty. Romario, chasing his own 1 000th strike in 2007, eventually reached the milestone in the same manner, although his tally is disputed in some quarters.
69. How hard is it to turn an elephant into Pelé? Not very, at least if you're artist Paul Trevillion.
70. Filming on Citizen Kane, widely viewed as one of the defining films in Western cinema, finished on the day of Pelé’s birth. In 2001, on Pelé’s birthday the world got its first glimpse at one of the defining gadgets of the modern era - the iPod.
Corruption has been a major setback to development in Zimbabwe. Corruption can be done either by men or by women and corruption is now everywhere in our country whether in high offices or on the streets. People now take corruption as a short cut to get a service, product or even an opportunity to earn a living. Corruption cuts across race, class, religion and sex.
The Sunday Mail of 31 of October 2010 featured a story titled “Rushwaya: Wrong place at the right time” by Hellen Venganai, a gender development analyst. The author of the story suggested that the former Zimbabwe Football Association CEO was recently relieved of her duties because of her gender in a male dominated environment.
Before she was appointed ZIFA CEO, Henrietta Rushwaya was the co-ordinator for the national soccer team fundraising committee, and during that period she did a splendid job mobilising funds at a time when the men’s senior soccer team was having financial problems. Her break through came when she was appointed to the position of Chief Executive Officer at ZIFA. With a success record in fundraising at hand many people were happy to have Henrietta take up the position not because she is woman but because of her credentials. When the corruption scandal exploded at ZIFA I believe we have read about influential people who are in the ZIFA board also being implicated in the scandal.
The only problem I have over Mrs Rushwaya’s sacking is that instead of firing just one person and making a headline story out of it, the whole ZIFA body should just do the nation a favour and leave, so that sanity can prevail in our lovely game of soccer in this country. It takes more than one person for corruption to take place, so all those who took part in the corruption scandal should face the full wrath of the law. Currently the ZIFA executive is lined up with faces that also took part in the corruption scandal but they still have their jobs.
I am not the one to judge whether Rushwaya is guilty or not. In Zimbabwe we are campaigning for equal representation so that the field of play can be the same for both women and men. So in order to set a good example lets not condone corrupt activities even if women do them. Some theories argue that women are less corrupt than men because they care about their image more than men do. Women pay attention to what others think about them, but men think about how powerful others perceive them to be. These theories may be true or not true. No literature supports the idea that women are less corrupt than men. Let’s learn to call a spade a spade and deal with corruption accordingly. Otherwise we will end up with plenty of cases involving women giving the same reason Hellen Venganai is trying to come up with of saying that “Rushwaya was implicated because she was working in a male dominated environment”.
