Benji shoots from the heart

he contributed to the Warriors — the Zimbabwe national soccer team — on the field will go on forever.
What is not in doubt is the commitment he showed to the cause.
He arrived when asked, unless he was injured.
And even when he was not able to be with his teammates, he helped out in many different ways.
Perhaps an early sign of his ability to build links was when he organised for the Warriors to train at his former club, the now relegated AJ Auxerre in France, ahead of their trip to the Nations Cup in Egypt in 2006.
That a player could organise for a whole national team to travel to his former club and put them up there speaks of his ability to build relationships.
That he has moved between clubs, garnering huge transfer fees also speaks of a sound business mind.
All that pales against his latest venture.
The Benjani Mwaruwari Foundation has taken off in a big way and its crowning moment will be the Benjani Testimonial match, and its attendant showbiz connections.
International football players are known for their love for high fashion, flashy cars and expensive houses.
Some, however, are known for their kind hearts.
Benjani ticks the boxes above, but has reserved his biggest tick for the last one.
A career that has taken him to the English Premiership, by way of the local PSL (Air Zimbabwe Jets), the South African PSL (Jomo Cosmos), Switzerland (Grasshoppers Zurich) and France, has not clouded his thinking.
He remains a humble Zimbabwean boy who just wants to help young people follow their talent and dreams — like he did.
Football purists will never mention Benjani as the greatest player ever, but he was only the third Zimbabwean in the English Premiership (after Bruce Grobbelaar at Liverpool and Peter Ndlovu at Coventry) when he joined Portsmouth in 2006 so he must have been doing something right.
He was one of the players who moved into Manchester City as the team began the journey that culminated in a league championship earlier this month.
He joined City in 2008 and spent two years there, before joining Sunderland (on loan) and moving to Blackburn in 2010. He rejoined Portsmouth in 2011 and his contract ended at the end of this season.
He is clubless, but the South African PSL is fluttering its eyelashes at him after a glorious season there in 2001 where he won both Player of the Year and Players Player of the year awards despite not playing for a full season.
He played 44 times for the Warriors, scoring 29 goals.
And now he will bid farewell to his local fans by providing a feast of international footie flair at the same time raising funds for his foundation.
Talk about mixing business with passion.
The hype has reached maximum levels now and with the international football stars already in the country, it is now certain that Harare will get a feel of a society event unlike any other.
While the Warriors have played top level opposition before, including the mighty Brazil in May 2010, and Zimbabwe has hosted PSV Eindhoven of the Netherlands and Racing Club of Argentina in January 1989, those were just football matches.
Perhaps the PSV/Racing one bears the closest resemblance to what the nation will be witnessing this weekend.
This one is different in that the proceeds raised by a Zimbabwean player, will be ploughed back into junior football in the country and will go a long way towards realising the dreams of many young people whose dreams have been fuelled by television and newspapers which daily stream images of African football success stories.
That these football success stories will come and help build Zimbabwean dreams is commendable.
That much maligned resource — Wikipedia says: “A  testimonial match or testimonial game, often referred to simply as a testimonial, is a practice in some sports, notably football and especially in the United Kingdom, where a club puts on a match in honour of a player for service to the club.
By tradition, clubs typically grant testimonials to players upon reaching ten years of service with a club, although they sometimes are given to players with less service as they approach retirement. These matches are always non-competitive.
Typically, former greats for the club are invited to participate, either in the match itself or the surrounding festivities. For especially prominent players, some all-time greats of the game may be invited, or the opposition can be a national team.
Alternatively, if a player is strongly identified with more than one club team, the testimonial may involve the player’s current and past clubs. All proceeds from the match go to the player; depending on the country, the income may be tax-free to the player.”
In this case, the proceeds will go to the foundations.
It is not yet clear which of the country’s services will waive their charges in support of this worthy cause.
In 1992, Liverpool held a testimonial for Grobbelaar against their fierce local rivals Everton, and the match featured club greats past and present such as Steve Harkness, David Burrows, Nick Tanner, Mike Marsh, Don Hutchison, Mark Walters, Iztvan Kozma, Steve McManaman and Ronny Rosenthal. The team was managed by another legend Greame Sounness
Another African great who had a major testimonial is Lucas Radebe, whose match (Leeds XI vs and International XI) was played at Elland Road in 2005 and attracted his fellow professionals Grobbelaar, Jay Jay Okocha, Doctor Khumalo Mario Melchiot, Lee Sharpe, Olivier Dacourt, Ivan Campo, John Carew, Zlatko Zahovic, Matthew Kilgallon, Erik Bakke and Ally McCoist.
Radebe’s match attracted 37 886 and was the biggest attendance of the season at Elland Road. It remains to be seen how many will turn out to support Benjani’s charity and repay his efforts and goodwill.
Testimonials are also a gift that keeps on giving. A signed programme from Bruce’s testimonial now fetches £30 on internet auction site ebay.