The Sunday Mail
Petros Kausiyo
Sports Editor
THERE was a time when Zimbabwean players were so dominant in the South African Premiership, it even heightened the rivalry between the Warriors and Bafana Bafana and made the two-nations’ clashes a must-watch international fixture.
It was a time when Zimbabwean players were literally the kings of the South African Premiership.
So good were they that players like Rabson Mchichwa became poster boys on some advertising billboards, the quartet of Wilfred Mugeyi, Benjani Mwaruwari, Tinashe Nengomasha and Khama Billiat claimed the South African Premiership Player of the Year award.
Gilbert Mushangazhike, Knowledge Musona, Wilfred Mugeyi and Mwaruwari were also lethal in front of goal, they secured the Golden Boot gong.
All that has now been confined to the annals of history as a cocktail of maladministration, greedy agents, plummeting standards and lack of development programmes have conspired to ensure that our star has waned in the era of the Super Diski that Zimbabweans used to only dominate but spiced up with some top drawer performances.
Generations of players from the era of Ebson “Sugar’’ Muguyo, Rabson Mchichwa, John Mbidzo, the late Francis Shonhayi, Edelbert Dinha, Innocent Chikoya, Gilbert Mushangazhike would arrive in South Africa and light up that country’s elite league. The trend continued with the class that included Esrom Nyandoro, Benjani Mwaruwari, Tinashe Nengomasha, Edzai Kasinauyo, Kaitano Tembo, Alois Bunjira, Stewart Murisa, Ian Gorowa, Tauya Murewa, Dumisani Mpofu and the Mugeyi twins — William and Wilfred — also holding their own.
They would pass on the baton to the likes of Knowledge Musona, Method Mwanjali, Cuthbert Malajila, Willard Katsande, Khama Billiat, Tapuwa Kapini and Ovidy Karuru, and Thomas Sweswe, who not only excelled but like their predecessors had the staying power.
With Zimbabwe on suspension from the international football family and local players unable to move to clubs outside the country’s borders, the Sunday Mail Sport sought answers on why the domestic Premiership players were no longer the golden boys of the South African Premiership even before FIFA announced their sanctions two weeks ago.
Many believe that the period that the country will be under FIFA suspension could actually help reignite Zimbabwe’s game, which had faded as successive ZIFA executives in the last few years, abandoned development programmes.
The suspended board led by Felton Kamambo, accused of abusing Covid-19 relief funds, dragged the local game into further abyss when stalling the Women’s Soccer League, withdrew youth teams from international competitions and ignored calls to revive capacity building courses for coaches and referees.
But it is the failure to assert themselves by Zimbabweans in the DSTV Premiership that puts into perspective the declining standards in the quality of the players being churned out on the domestic front.
A ray hope has, however, filtered that the restructuring committee — a team of experts – appointed by the Sport and Recreation Commission, will also unpack the challenges being faced by the national game and unveil a raft of strategies for its revival.
Lovemore Moyo, a South African-based Zimbabwean journalist who has been covering the game in that country with particular emphasis on players from his homeland for nearly two decades, said it was unfortunate that the Warriors star has been fading over the last few years.
“The truth of the matter is that the quality of the players that Zimbabwe has been exporting to South African has declined in recent years and proof of that is in the numbers. “Just look at how many players have come through to play in South Africa over the last 10 years and almost immediately went back or didn’t make the cut here in South African and were forced to look elsewhere.
“The list of players is huge and it is unlike before when players used to come here and you would know that they would come here and stay for a very long time.
“I think we need to face the facts … the standard of football in Zimbabwe has dropped. It has dropped so bad that right now there is not even a single player that you can pick from the whole of the league to say this player can come and walk into a Mamelodi Sundowns, Orlando Pirates or Kaizer Chiefs like used to be the tradition back in the days when you would know that every second year or every year you would get a Zimbabwean coming to join any one of the big teams,’’ Moyo said.
He bemoaned the fact that the trend had shifted with more Zimbabweans now featuring in the First Division than those who are in the top-flight.
“The only players that we are able to take across the Limpopo nowadays, some of them end up going to play in the First Division. There are more Zimbabwean players in the First Division than there is in the PSL right now and that should tell you something.
“Back in the days there never used to be big numbers of Zimbabweans in the First Division, all of them would be playing in the PSL’’ he said. Moyo noted that the decline had also impacted on the composition of the Warriors.
Even now you can also see the Warriors squad is not even dominated by players from the PSL, because there is not so much of quality in the players from the PSL and that tells you the story.
“Also another issue is the way players are sometimes being pushed through by agents to come to South Africa before they are ready, there is a lot of desperation, all in the chase for a better contract, we know that most of the players are playing for peanuts.
“But at the end of the day we just need to be honest with ourselves and say product of the footballer that is being produced in Zimbabwe nowadays is not good enough, of course here and there we have isolated cases of players going direct to Europe but tradition of having the quality coming to play in South Africa is dying down,’’ Moyo said.
Former Bafana Bafana striker George Dearnaley is also a worried man over the declining standards but argues that it is not only confined to Zimbabwe but in the South African game.
Dearnaley, who rubbed shoulders with the likes of Shonhayi, Yohane, Dinha, Mbidzo and Gorowa also noted that the xenophobic attacks on foreigners, had impacted negatively on the growth of the South African game with expatriate players opting for other leagues in places like Tanzania, Botswana and North Africa.
“There has been a decline in recent years of quality Zimbabwean players coming to South Africa,’’ Dearnaley, who now runs an institution that identifies and nurtures players – Football Magic Foundation, noted.
“Although it is never fair to compare generations, but the great Warriors of the 1990s decade that lit up the South African football scene, the likes of Francis Shonhayi, Innocent Chikoya, Ian Gorowa, the Mugeyi brothers, John Mbidzo, Tau Murewa, Rabson Mchichwa, Gilbert Mushangazhike, Stewart Murisa, Kaitano Tembo and Edelbert Dinha to name a few, were followed by more quality in the 2000s, the likes of Esrom Nyandoro, Knowledge Musona, Willard Katsande and Khama Billiat, who is still active but nearing the end of an illustrious career’’ he said.
But where is the next generation of Zimbabwean stars?
“To answer this, we have to look at the source of Zimbabwean football. Most South Africans know of CAPS United, Highlanders and Dynamos, the three powerhouses of Zim football in the past years, but in recent years there has been a changing of the guard. Manica Diamonds, Herentals and Triangle United are not known here,’’ Dearnaley added.
The 53-year-old coach, who featured for Seven Stars Hellenic and AmaZulu also insisted that the challenges facing the Zimbabwean game could not be viewed in isolation, suggesting that there was a need for shift in approach to football by the two countries.
“The state of Zimbabwean football is not known here, and the levels of development, of competition, of international competition at youth level – all of these factors contribute to the final product – the player.
“But if we look at the decline of the Zimbabwean player we must also look at the decline of the South African player. The buying and selling of club franchises locally, the regular hiring and firing of coaches, the lack of funding at grassroots level – if South Africa with its World Cup venues, world class media, powerful economy and relatively stable political environment still can’t produce World Class players, then why should we expect our neighbours to be doing it?
“I believe that the modern professional game in South Africa has evolved into a battle of teams who will do anything not to lose, who are well organised defensively, fit and strong and better conditioned than my generation, and under huge pressure to play the high percentages with as little risk as possible.
“The 0-0 draw has become a common score line, something that was not common in the ’80s and ’90s where the order of the day was for both teams to attack each other and see who scored the most goals.
“It is hard for flair players to flourish in an environment that stifles flair and rewards defensive discipline.
“But we also used to get talented players from Malawi, Uganda, Botswana and Mozambique coming to ply their trade in our domestic league – those talents have also dried up. The door into European leagues has also opened up a lot more for African players, and this has meant more competition for the South African PSL’’.
He also took a dig xenophobic tendencies by some South Africans.
“Our recent history of xenophobia and attacks on foreign nationals might also mean that we are no longer seen as the golden opportunity for Southern African players, who would rather look at opportunities elsewhere.
“The improved Botswana league and the rise of the Tanzanian league has added local competition to our PSL for players.
“So I believe that there is plenty of talent across the COSAFA region, but talent is not enough on its own.
“Talent needs to be identified, developed, nurtured and then given an opportunity to flourish. The best way to do this is in a stable environment, with pressure to improve – not to win, with expert coaching education and opportunities to be challenged as a player every week.
“From grassroots level, these players must be playing in strength vs strength leagues so they can be challenged, and the best ones selected for their junior national teams to play against the best youth players across the continent to be challenged, and by the time they are 21/22 they are ready for the World of Professional football.
“If we can’t create this environment at grassroots, youth and development levels, we can’t expect to produce diamonds. South Africa has the same issues, we just haven’t started to ask the same questions,’’ Dearnaley said.
Former Zimbabwe youth teams coach Rodwell Dhlakama also weighed in and reckoned that there is need to implement strategies with a clear vision for development of players.
“Our structures from grassroots level are now dormant. We used to have leagues up to Division 5 and real Area zone leagues which were tributaries that fed into the mainstream which is the PSL.
“All the tributaries have now dried up and you don’t expect the river which is the PSL to flow with the same intensity when even a lot of the programs would produce good players,’’ Dhlakama said.
Dhlakama, who won gold with the Zimbabwe Under-17 side at COSAFA and COSANOC levels as well as the Coca-Cola Schools Tri-Nations tournament said it was not too late for the country to rediscover its football mojo.
“We are struggling to find goal scorers in our league and the football is no longer so exciting… there is a lot of bickering especially in administration at the expense of development, there is a lot of power fighting in the top echelons of the game.
“Basically we have a lot of things that are not in place, we have a lot of selfish people, self-centred to such an extent that administrators are pulling everyone onto their corner at the expense of players and in the end prejudicing the too many talented players we have’’ Dhlakama said.
Ex-Warriors defender Edelbert Dinha feels it is unfortunate that some players were only after a quick dollar without much effort being put into perfecting their art.
“When we came to South Africa, we had a mind of wanting to do better and move to even better leagues than SA.
“First you make a name for yourself so that you attract, scouts or bigger teams in SA so that chances of you moving to Europe were high,’’ Dinha said.
A versatile player during his time, who featured for Seven Stars, Ajax Cape Town, Orlando Pirates and FC AK, Dinha questioned the passion and commitment of the current crop.
“Yes we wanted to make money too sadly it wasn’t the same as today. We also wanted to cement your place in the national team and the competition was very tough.
“You play badly, the next player called to the national team will play so well and you will have to work extra hard to come back to the team.
“You snooze you lose. Today’s generation, there is plenty of money which is good for the players because football these days is business. You have to take care of your future, family, career but the hunger has disappeared.
“As long as you get a contract that’s it.
“We still yet to see the next Khama, Musona or Karuru,’’ Dinha said.
Development coach Farai Dhliwayo whose Legends Football Academy in Harare has been putting in a commendable shift in nurturing players such as Douglas Mapfumo, Calum English-Brown and Sebastien Summerfield questioned the mentality and conditioning of players being exported from Zimbabwe now.
“South African Premier League clubs have become more professional over the years.
“They now use the latest training methods and these have become more intense and robust.
“In addition the clubs have become more competitive and clubs are looking for players who can produce from the day of signing,’’ Dhliwayo said.
He also acknowledged the tough competition brought about by players from elsewhere in Africa.
“Players from the entire continent are looking for places and if you cannot perform it is easier to replace you.
“Our players currently lack character and work ethic.
They are making it to South African clubs based on their talent alone.
“Once there they cannot cope with the regime or make the necessary sacrifices required to perform weekly at the highest level.
“Unfortunately many start to believe they have arrived and convince themselves that they can have a social life and be a top football professional at the same time,’’ Dhliwayo said.
BN Academy director and Zimbabwe Soccer Coaches Association (ZISCA) president Bheki Nyoni attributed lack of maturity to the struggles being faced by some players being shipped to the South African Premiership.
“The issue might have been to do with issues of going out while they are not mature enough such that they end up being attracted by other things and thus they won’t be working very hard,’’ Nyoni said.
What is clear though is that Super Diski, which is still being played before empty stadiums due to the Covid-19 restrictions, could once again do with the Zimbabwean spice that local players used to provide.
