The Sunday Mail
Makomborero Mutimukulu
Sports Editor
NIGH is that traditional gathering, a ritual that torches emotions, a rite whose final outcome has never been universally acknowledged as right. The selection of the Soccer Stars of the Year is a highly emotive issue, one that always attracts controversy. This year promises to be no different.In the coming weeks a panel comprising journalists, Premier Soccer League club captains and coaches will converge and select the finest XI players of this term. However, the drama starts long before the convener of selectors – Stars FM’s Steve Vickers – calls the house to order and ends long after the final round of drinks has been served at the Soccer Stars of the Year banquet.
It’s not supposed to be one, but many times the selection process has turned out to be a joke.
Evans Chikwaikwai ludicrously won the top gong ahead of Edward Sadomba in 2008; Tawanda Muparati got it in 2013 to the surprise of everyone, including himself; and Walter Chuma was somehow crowned king in 1997.
There have been times, too, when the selectors hit the bull’s eye: Danny Phiri winning it last year and Denver Mukamba triumphing in 2012 are cases in point.
To their credit, the PSL and Delta Beverages always strive to refine the system and for the first time in the history of the competition, all votes will be made public this year.
In the past this used to be an exclusive gathering of journalists, but several questionable calls triggered the coming on board of coaches and captains.
While the system can be fine-tuned, selecting the best XI players of the season is continuously being molested by the alarming quantities of chaff in the local league. Amid a dearth in quality, the selection panel still has to find the one-eyed man in this land of the blind. That one-eyed man will assume a mantle once held by greats like George Shaya, Shacky Tauro, Peter Ndlovu, Tauya Murehwa and Cephas Chimedza.
It’s difficult to single out a player who this season illuminated the game in the manner in which Joseph Kamwendo did in 2005 and Clemence Matawu replicated the following year. This season has been long on effort and but terribly short on quality.
The panel has its work cut out. As expected at this time of the season names are being bandied around. Leonard Tsipa is getting some hype because he has hit top form towards what Sir Alex Ferguson once described as squeaky bum time.
There is an argument that Tsipa has powered Makepekepe to the cusp of their first league championship in a decade with his goals.
But just how many has he scored so far? Drum roll please! Eleven is the grand sum.
Some sections have Tsipa’s haul at 12 but the PSL records show that the 34-year-old striker has scored 11 of the 40 goals that Makepekepe have netted thus far.
Joel Ngodzo – rather than Tsipa – has been credited with Makepekepe’s third goal in their 4-1 rout of Mutare City at the National Sports Stadium on August 28. That Tsipa has been key to Makepekepe’s impressive season is not in doubt, but arguing that he has been the best player at the club, never mind the best player in the country, is a sure way to trigger debate.
At Caps United, full-back Hardlife Zvirekwi has had a fine season; Steven Makatuka has been a rock.
But in football, fans celebrate artistes more than artisans; defenders have to work twice as much for half as much recognition.
This puts players like ZPC Kariba hardman Thomas Sweswe, Triangle’s Guthrie Zhokinyi and Dynamos’ Obey Mwerahari a few yards behind the Soccer Stars of the Year selection starting blocks.
More for less appears to also be the curse that players who do not play for the league’s big boys operate under.
Can you imagine Kudakwashe Gurure, the wonder kid who has scored eight league goals for relegation battling Mutare City, as a Dynamos starlet? Can you imagine Petroes Mhari’s 16 clean sheets in 28 league games, being for Highlanders and not FC Platinum? It’s one hell of a process selecting the Soccer Stars of the Year but someone has to do it and earn the right to collect those khaki envelopes the sponsor sets asides for the yearly ritual!
