The Sunday Mail
Langton Nyakwenda
WHILE it has been party time for many Zimbabweans during this festive season, for two former Caps United players based in North Africa there was no Christmas to celebrate.
There won’t be much partying either this New Year’s Eve as preparations for the second half of the season get into top gear. For the first time in his career, Abbas Amidu could not come back home to celebrate Christmas with his family in Harare’s high-density suburb of Glen Norah because there is no Xmas in the Arab world.
Amidu’s Egyptian side El Entag El Harby played a league match against Smouha on December 24 before the players regrouped the following day for a training session. El Harby hosted Wadi Degla in an Egyptian Premier League match at the Al Salam Stadium in Cairo yesterday.
Ronald “Rooney” Chitiyo, who is yet to feature for Tunisian giants CS Sfaxien, was also missing in Epworth where he usually spends Christmas and with his family. The 25-year-old Chitiyo has, however, been given a nine days off and will arrive in Harare today to spend the New Year holiday at home.
Chitiyo joined eight-time champions CS Sfaxien last August but was sidelined because of the team’s transfer ban imposed by the world football governing body FIFA in January 2017.
“Rooney” will be eligible to play in the new year and could feature when CS Sfaxien clash with Ben Guerdane in a cup game on January 14. My job is to play and I am happy that I can now start playing football again,” Chitiyo told The Sunday Mail from his base in Tunis. The pint-sized gifted attacker was, however, quick to reveal his homesickness.
“I miss my family, I never had time to come back home for Christmas because it was all work as we prepare for the second round of the season.
“But, such is the nature of our job as footballers,” he said. Just as much as the living conditions in Tunisia have impressed Chitiyo, the working conditions have overwhelmed the former Monomotapa, Dynamos and Harare City linkman. The language barrier appears to be the only hiccup for Chitiyo.
“They take football seriously here, the training facilities are just fantastic, the stadiums are state of the art . . . vari kumberi vanhu ava,” revealed Chitiyo.
“Language has been a problem especially Arabic, French is a bit easier to grasp. But I can speak a little Arabic now. ‘Sibake’ means ‘good morning’ and, of course, ‘Sala maleko’ means ‘how are you’,” he said.
Chitiyo has established a close friendship with two teammates from Nigeria – Kingsley Sokari and Michael Ibe. Maher Hannachi, a Tunisian national, is another player Chitiyo spends time with on the Mediterranean Sea beach or shopping in the capital Tunis.
“I always thank God for what he has done for me from the beginning. He is the one who has taken me this far from humble beginnings,” he says.
About 2 810km separate Tunis and Cairo where 27-year-old Amidu is making history as the first ever Zimbabwean to ply his trade in the Egyptian Premier League. Amidu signed a $30 000 three-year contract with the Cairo-based military side El Entag El Harby last September and has so far scored two goals coming on mainly as a second-half substitute.
Apart from missing his sadza, Amidu says it was strange spending Christmas on the pitch, thousands of miles away from his family in Glen Norah.
“It was a bit strange for me, I am used to spending Christmas with my family but it was all football here. There was no rest, we played on the 24th of December and trained on the 25th. There is no Christmas in the Arab world as you know,” moaned Amidu. The good thing, though, is that the former Kaizer Chiefs forward has adjusted to life in Cairo quickly, thanks to some Zimbabwean friends he discovered there.
One of them, Ruramai Nyandoro – an engineer with a Cairo-based company – was Amidu’s schoolmate back at Lord Malvern High a couple of years ago.
“This world is too small! It was amazing to discover a former schoolmate here in Cairo. We were together with Ruramai at Lord Malvern although she was a stream ahead of me.
“In fact, she was in the same stream with footballers Darryl Nyandoro and Brian Mapfumo. Then there is also Lucia and Bennerdiect Dengu who we refer to as Mbuya Benny, they both work for a local company,” revealed Amidu.
As the Egyptian Premier League rolls into the second half of the season, with Amidu’s team closer to relegation than the top four, the Zimbabwean international knows it’s time to work harder.
“I am targeting to score at least 10 goals in the second half of the season. The coach mainly used me as a substitute, on the wing, but I want to establish my position in the starting eleven and score more goals.”
