The Sunday Mail
Legendary former Zimbabwe captain Peter Ndlovu may have long retired from the international game, but his name remains part of an elite cast of 11 stars who scored hat-tricks in the 26-year history of the Cosafa Cup.
Ndlovu is now a team manager at South African Premiership champions Mamelodi Sundowns.
Two other Zimbabweans – Ovidy Karuru and Knox Mutizwa (Golden Arrows) – are also part of the 11-man list.
The 2023 edition of the tournament is scheduled for Durban, South Africa, from July 5 to 16.
The Warriors will, however, not take part, as the country remains suspended from international football by FIFA.
Mozambique’s Adelino also scored a hat-trick in 1997 when the Mambas thrashed Eswatini 4-0.
It would be another seven years before the next hat-trick, and once again it came against Eswatini.
This time it was scored by Ndlovu in a 5-0 victory for the Warriors.
Overall, Ndlovu scored 37 international goals, eight of them in the Cosafa Cup.
Karuru’s hat-trick came at the 2017 competition in which he wore the captain’s armband for the Warriors.
Zimbabwe were flying at that tourney in Rustenburg, with Karuru leading the way as he netted six goals in the competition, the most ever by a player in a single tournament.
Three of those goals came in a 6-0 victory over Seychelles.
Karuru had a 12-year stint in the national team and scored seven goals, with six of them coming in the 2017 Cosafa Cup.
Mutizwa was another player in superb form during the 2017 Cosafa Cup, and he got his hat-trick in a thrilling 4-3 victory over Lesotho, one of the best games ever in the regional competition.
He would also score in the final as Zimbabwe defeated old foes Zambia 3-1.
Mutizwa has six goals for the Warriors, with five coming in the Cosafa Cup in 2017.
Angola’s Akwa (against Mauritius, 2006) got in on the act with a treble to help his side to a 5-1 victory.
Angola would go on to lose in the final to Zimbabwe that year.
Akwa is the joint leading scorer for Palancas Negras in the Cosafa Cup with five goals in total.
He netted 38 goals in 78 appearances for Angola.
Paulin Voavy of Madagascar (Madagascar vs Seychelles, 2007), Seychelles’ Philip Zialor (Seychelles vs Mauritius, 2008) and Jerome Ramatlhakwane of Botswana are the other plays on that distinguished list.
In fact, Zialor is the only player in Cosafa Cup history to score four goals in a single game, as he achieved the feat in the record 7-0 demolition of Mauritius in 2008.
It remains Seychelles’ only ever Cosafa Cup win in 31 attempts.
Gabadinho Mhango, who is Malawi’s leading scorer in the Cosafa Cup with six goals, is similarly part of the elite club.
Three of those goals came against Angola in the 2016 tournament that was staged in Namibia.
He is the first and, to date, only Flames player to net a hat-trick.
The others are Botswana’s Tumisang Orebonye (Botswana vs Lesotho, 2021), whose treble helped the Zebras to a 4-0 win, and Bafana Bafana forward Victor Letsoalo, who helped South Africa beat Lesotho 3-0 in 2021.
Letsoalo netted a treble on debut, the first player in South Africa’s history to do so.
It is also just the second-ever hat-trick for Bafana Bafana since their readmission to international football in 1992.
It also meant the last three hat-tricks in the competition have all come against Lesotho. – Sports Reporter/Cosafa.com
