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Tadious Manyepo Sports Reporter
SHE appeared to be visiting the toilet.
Right in the middle of the night.
The woman who was supposed to be her mother, had just dutifully breastfed her into sleep.
And then she seemed headed to answer nature’s call.
Some of the maternity ward patients saw her, some didn’t.
It was midnight, back in 2004.
Then she disappeared into the Gweru darkness. Never to be seen again.
The innocent soul, who would be christened Ileana Mupandawana, was left wrapped in a new baby blanket.
The warmth provided the comfort. But hunger woke her up before day-break. She was just two-days old.
Unaware of her new predicament, she cried, as she had done in the opening hours of her introduction to mother earth.
She hoped to feel the warmth of her mother, like what she had been used to in those early hours of her life. But not this time for the poor infant.
At first, Mupandawana, an agile midfielder in her debut season with Chapungu Queens, was reluctant to open up.
“Let’s only talk about my football,” she had pleaded two months ago.
But after months of knowing each other, talking on a daily basis, she decides to pour her heart out.
She is excited after her team put Faith Drive Academy to the sword in a Women’s Super League tie to retain some arithmetic chances of winning the title monopolised by fellow service-women Black Rhinos Queens.
She started that match on the bench.
Then sprung in the second half with her team leading 2-0.
The 18-year-old didn’t take long to announce her arrival.
Receiving a long throw-in on the right channel, she hooked the ball to the ground, with some eloquent conviction, she delivered a measured cross that picked Ethel Chinyerere.
The latter, sister to FC Platinum defender Nomore, did justice as she sealed the points for the Air Force of Zimbabwe side.
“My life history is a sad book to read. But I cannot run away from it,” she begins.
Every word she is saying draws emotions but the smile on her face never disappears.
“I am told I was abandoned at the hospital by my mother. I was only an infant and I don’t know the reason why she had to do that.
“Anyway since I don’t know the reasons, I won’t look for the reasons. You know growing up in a Children’s Home, when your faculties start to recognise things, you then start to question.
“So I would ask myself, especially when I started going to Riverside Primary School seeing other children saying they were going home; their homes were different from ours.
“With time, I realised something was really not right. I was frightened but also relieved. I accepted who I was and life continued.
“There was no girls’ soccer at Riverside but at our home, we used to play this game and I was a decent player. So the teachers would draft me into the boys’ team. That is how I developed relatively faster.
“By the time I went to high school at Nashville I was already a developed player.”
Once she realised she could earn a living out of playing football, she started researching speed, agility, endurance and strength drills, thanks to Econet Wireless who donated Tablets to her home.
And it was surfing the net when she also bumped into a Chapungu Queens flier calling for trials early this year.
She then dialed the number at the bottom. It belonged to the club manager Talent Chitsaka. The latter asked her to send video clips and the rest is history.
Mupandawana is now on a scholarship at Manyame High School.
Midlands Children’s Home superintendent Lenzeni Ndete-Kamwendo is loving every bit of Mupandawana’s progression.
“She was brought to this home in 2004 by the Department of Social Welfare. Those situations are rampant but nevertheless we have had to live with them.
“Ileana (Mupandawana) started to exhibit her love for football long back. We have time for sport at home and she would play in the boys’ football team and she would be very effective while we were playing against our fellow homes like Blue Hills.
“She is a talented footballer and I just hope she will make it even bigger. She is on a scholarship right now and her achievement is inspiring every one of the 52 children we have at home right now,” she said.
“I am very happy she has grown to become a renowned footballer in the country while she is only 18-years-old.
“I would like to thank all those, especially the Catholic Church for always helping us with what we need at home.”
Mupandawana’s teammate, Edline Mutumbami, said the teenager is a huge prospect.
“She is a star by any standards. I was surprised the first day we played together. She is a top, top player and has a bright future ahead of her,” said Mutumbami, who also plays for the Mighty Warriors.
“I am confident if she stays grounded, she will be a huge star to watch out for. But even at the moment, you will feel very comfortable when playing with her in the midfield.”
Chitsaka has no doubt Mupandawana will be a superstar in the not-so-distant future.
“Her game intelligence is out of this world. She puts all her heart on work and she is an impressive player in the field of play.
“Once I saw her, I knew she was a gem. If she keeps the same spirit and the same energy levels, then we have dynamite in our team,” he said.
Mupandawana is still part and parcel of the Midlands Children’s Home and each time she is on holiday, she visits and gets coached on life skills as usual.
Her dream is to eventually get attested into the Air Force of Zimbabwe while she remains a footballer.
She is not the first female footballer to have emerged from a children’s home as former Mighty Warriors star Mavis Chirandu’s skills were also honed at the SOS Home in Bindura.
Online Reporter