Football, an interesting sport isn’t it?
For the uninitiated, let’s rewind a bit.
Simba Sithole left Zimbabwe in 2011, red hot and clearly the hottest property on the local football scene at that time, to join super rich South African side Mamelodi Sundowns. He had banged 10 goals for Caps United in 10 games, lighting the local Premiership. Ask Roderick Mutuma (eventually won the golden boot that season), it took him a mighty long time to catch up with him, long after he had assumed his new role as a ball boy at the Brazillians’ training ground in Pretoria. And the fact that Mutuma ended up with only 14 goals for the entire season, only 4 better than Simba who had played less than half the number of games speaks volumes.
Unknown to many of us, Simba was actually going to disappear from the football radar with this (what now looks like an ill-advised) move down-south. The young man failed to break into the Brazilians’ first team, which also had countrymen and direct replacement at Caps United, Nyasha Mushekwi in their ranks. He could not even eke a substitute appearance. He remained forgotten and endured a torrid 12 months of no football. The inevitable happened; Sundowns decided to cancel his contract and the young man had to find another employer. He reportedly tried his luck Pretoria University but failed.
To his credit, the 21 year old bit the bullet and decided to come back home. He however did the unlikely by joining Caps bitter rivals, Dynamos, replacing another Zimbabwean who had joined the great trek down south, Takesure Chinyama. In his first games, Simba clearly showed a lack of match fitness, testimony to his lack of action down south. The coaches at Dynamos where however patient with him, and now he is beginning to get close to his form of April 2011.
The Zimbabwe Under 23 goal poacher has finally lit up the stage for DeMbare. Crucially, he got goals in duels with bitter rivals Highlanders in a 1 – 1 league draw and of late in a 3 – 0 defeat of former club Caps United in a Mbada Diamonds semi-final match. Nothing endears a DeMbare player to Vazori veButter more! This is just so timely for the DeMbare faithfuls, right in the middle of chasing a rare retention of the double - the Mbada Diamonds Cup in which they have made it into the final and the league, which they currently lead by 2 points over rivals Highlanders.
By contrast, things are not so rosy at Simba’s former base, Chloorkop. Morale is at an all-time low as the team Sithole failed to break into languishes at the bottom of the ABSA Premiership with 6 points from 10 games. Since the beginning of the SA season, round about the time Sithole joined Dynamos, those who are too good to play alongside him have scored a combined total of 5 goals in the league; the exact number Sithole alone has delivered to his new side over the same time. None of them has been able to score twice thus far! Surely we ought to ask, is Simba good enough to be the toast of DeMbare yet not good enough for the bottom placed in the South African Premiership? Who really believes this?
This question deserves more attention as we hear of another South African Premiership side, Bloemfontein Celtics’ interest in the player. We don’t mind our Zim players going down south to make a Rand or two, but are they not just making a mockery of themselves being made to appear as good for nothings sweating it in training, without being given a fair chance on match day? We know our players deserve a better platform to display their skills than perhaps what the ZimPSL is currently offering, but at what price must they go? Are we not shooting ourselves in the foot? We don’t even want to start imagining how much Simba could have improved had he stayed at Kepekepe for the entire last season, for its now clear that his absence in the goal scorers charts for the last 12 months has not been out of inability. The boy is good!
Look, stories of players changing clubs, firing blanks and then deciding to go back to their clubs or joining a third one are awash in world football. We all know of the Peter Crouches, Fernando Torreses and Andy Carrolls of this world. Even our own Benjani has a story to tell. But one thing that is common about all these players is the extent their managers went to to give them game time before deciding to let them go. Who is convinced Simba was given a fair chance to prove himself at Sundowns? Hold on, don’t even sweat on a guess. We are not!
The only plausible reason that could explain Simba’s failure if at all he was given a fair chance is that competition at Sundowns is higher, and by implication they have better quality material than currently obtaining at DeMbare. Can this be true? Can we by implication (given Downs’ current position in the ABSA PSL) assume that Zimbabwe’s PSL log leaders would right now be candidates for relegation if they were playing in the South African Premiership? Would that current Sundowns team beat the trailblazing DeMbare tomorrow? We know fully well some might accuse us of generalising issues here, but come on! We know better!
With what Simba has shown at Caps United and Dynamos, as well as the Young Warriors, we must be convinced this boy is good. We only hope and pray that he is not hurried again this time around to trek down south. His talent looks like made for a better league that Super Diski.
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