The Sunday Mail
EIGHT goals in 14 matches — including a wonder strike against defending champions Dynamos at Rufaro — two consecutive monthly player awards and a host of foreign clubs trailing him sums up Edmore “Spana” Chirambadare’s explosive start to the season.
Five months into his debut topflight season, the Chicken Inn hotshot is the PSL’s top goal-getter and has been crowned Player of the Month for March/April and May.
Chirambadare’s performances have caught the eye of national team coach Kallisto Pasuwa.
His sizzling left foot is one of the reasons Joey Antipas’ charges top the log standings going into today’s Match Day 15 fixture against Caps United.
Chirambadare, however, misses today’s crucial fixture as he was part of the Warriors squad that played the Comoros in the second leg of a CHAN preliminary round qualifier yesterday.
He could have made his national team debut a fortnight ago when Zimbabwe hosted the islanders.
The 23-year-old striker, who was playing in rural Lower Gweru two years ago, rose to national prominence on May 3 at Rufaro when his memorable brace condemned DeMbare to their worst defeat at home in a decade — a 3-0 rout at the hands of the Gamecocks.
Chirambadare’s rise is fairytale stuff.
Three years ago he was an ordinary lad staying with his widowed mother and dreaming of the big stage as he struggled to even enter the lower leagues.
“After attempts to play for Midlands-based teams like ZimAlloys, Gweru Pirates and GMB Silo came to naught, I gave up, left Gweru Urban, where I was bred, and went to the rural areas in 2012 to stay with my mother.
“I was fed up with soccer, I was convinced nothing tangible would come out of this sport,” Chirambadare says.
While the striker was herding cattle in Gweru, Tsholotsho FC coach Lizwe Sweswe — who had seen Chirambadare five years ago at a youth tournament in Gwanda — was hunting for “that talented boy.”
“I saw immense talent in the boy when I first watched him play and was so sure he would go places. I lost track of him and the next thing I was told is he was staying in the rural areas.
“I also come from Lower Gweru and I know how life is there. So, when I got hold of his number end of 2012 I called him immediately.
“He joined me at Tsholotsho FC in 2013 when we were still in Division One; the following year he was the league’s top goal scorer with 13 goals and Tsholotsho FC were promoted into the top-flight for the first time in history,” narrates Sweswe, who converted Chirambadare from a midfielder into a striker.
