The Sunday Mail
Langton Nyakwenda
RODERICK “The Prince” MUTUMA looked dejected, clueless and hopeless as he made the long walk from the centre circle to the Rufaro dressing rooms after another poor performance last Thursday. Dynamos had just fired blanks for the fourth game in a row against How Mine, and the once revered Prince had spurned his team’s best chances before being pulled out for rookie Tawanda Machete.
The club’s fans were hurling insults at him and it was evident that Mutuma is no longer the darling of the DeMbare palace.
Two goals in 17 matches, one scored 105 days ago against Mutare City Rovers – a team with the worst defence in the league and the other one against Premiership first timers Ngezi Platinum Stars- is what the striker has done so far in the 2016 Premier Soccer League season.
But the 28-year-old gangly forward’s troubles extend beyond the pitch.
Baring his soul in a short exchange with this reporter as he walked towards the changing rooms amid a flurry of vulgarities from Dynamos supporters, Mutuma revealed that he had been going through hell over the past couple of months.
“The goals are not coming my brother and as you can see the fans are not happy. But there are a lot of issues happening, things are not smooth at home,” Mutuma said.
Mutuma lost his elder sister, Eneresi, on July 20, just two months after her husband, Taurai Njave, had also passed on. This saw the striker taking the couple’s four orphans into his lodgings in Harare’s Budiriro suburb.
That’s not all. The Prince’s mother is bedridden back in his hometown of Mvuma, suffering from hypertension.
“It is not like I am looking for excuses. I know I am paid to score goals and I should just score but sometimes circumstances off the pitch affect a player.
“You see, when my brother-in-law passed away in May I had to take care of his children because my sister was also not feeling well. My sister’s situation affected the whole family, I could not stop thinking about it and it distracted me,” he confided.
Mutuma fluffed a number of chances against How Mine last Thursday, three of them in front of an open goal.
Coach Lloyd Mutasa saved him from more embarrassment when he pulled him off in the 83rd minute.
Mutuma’s woes mirror the dire situation at Dynamos.
The Glamour Boys have gone for over 360 minutes without a goal and that is a worrying statistic for Mutasa ahead of today’s trip to Border Strikers.
A return of 12 goals in 17 Premiership matches is DeMbare’s worst in more than a decade. At this stage last season, Dynamos had scored 18, in 2014 they had banged 17 and in the previous season they had found the net 24 times.
However, Mutuma sees brighter days on the horizon, especially with the return of Denver Mukamba, who briefly dazzled on Thursday.
“Denver is by far the best player in the league, he is the best of them all and I am hoping his return can help revive my waning fortunes. He will create a lot of chances for us, I will start scoring, you will see,” The Prince said.
The controversial striker also opened up on his relationship with assistant coach Murape Murape.
The two exchanged blows in August 2014 when Murape was still the club captain, following a disagreement over allowances, and their working relationship has been the subject of much speculation.
“King Mura (Murape) has always been my elder and will always be one. That (fight) is a thing of the past, a moment of madness that I have forgotten about. I respect Murape both as a senior in football and as my coach at Dynamos,” said Mutuma.
