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Phillip Zulu in LEEDS, England
THE passing on of our football legend Misheck “Scania” Chidzambwa has shocked the multitudes of our sport-loving fans in Zimbabwe and abroad.
Our football has been robbed of three of the most respected legends, David “Yogi” Mandigora, a fellow teammate with Chidzmbwa at Dynamos and also in the national team; and Mick Poole who passed on in England who was their coach in the senior national team and at DeMbare.
Our national flag should be flying at half-mast in recognition and honour of these fallen heroes of our football, they served the beautiful game with dignity, passion and total dedication, but the news dissemination of their passing on lacks the sombre and sense of national attachment to the sad loss and mourning that befits a true hero’s status of such deserving men.
Chidzambwa was the first to captain a national side that won an international tournament when Zimbabwe beat Kenya 2-0 in the 1985 CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup.
Misheck rose from the shadows of his elder brother Sunday Chidzambwa in the early 70s when he started playing as a right wing back, he then progressed to partner his brother as a centreback. Their partnership became one of the most heralded defensive unit in the country as they stood tall and tough, in their club continental championship battles with top north and west African teams like Arab Contractors, Zamalek (both of Egypt), Algeria’s JET and Canon De Yaounde of Cameroon.
We have lost a generation of great footballers, brave men who sacrificed everything for football that gave them less returns in wealth and recognition.
Misheck Chidzambwa was described as tough as teak, when he held the most lethal strike force of JET of Algeria when Dynamos beat them 2-0 in the African Champions League knockout stages in Harare. Football then was so tough, the tackling so rough and very dangerous, hence his career ending injuries that he succumbed to.
He was ravaged by serious injuries that changed his life into permanent injuries that prohibited his active coaching roles. Misheck Chidzambwa gave us some masterclass defending blueprints as he held his duels with the late Shacky Tauro of CAPS United every time they played against each other, their competitiveness and strong character to try and win every encounter brought the best out of them.
What made Misheck Chidzambwa adapt so fast in terms of top end defending was his exposure to a marauding goal hungry Tauro who terrorised every defence out there with impunity and, by defending against such a top striker who had athletic dynamism of speed, strength and an eye for goals, that developed Misheck to a monster defender that we became used to.
A gallant son of Dynamos follows two of his colleagues in less than three weeks apart, this sad news is too sorrowful when one looks at the photos of the Zimbabwean players in Coventry, when they went to UK to play some friendly games that were organised by Mick Poole in the early 80s.
That was top football development at its best, established senior players like Mishek Chidzambwa, Joseph Zulu, Oliver Kateya, Sunday Chidzambwa and Ephert Lungu gelled with emerging talented national youth players like Stanford “Stix” Mutizwa, Stanley “Sinyo” Ndunduma, James Takavada, Hamid “Muzukuru” Dhana and Joel “Jubilee” Shambo.
The very same team of these youth fledging talents had stubbornly bullied the Argentines led by the then Diego Maradona in Moscow during the World Coca Cola Youth tournament when we lost in the quarter-finals in 1980.
These are the unsung heroes of our football, the true legends whose calling to the game was religiously inscripted and fervently served the game with brilliance.
My football knowledge and passion came from this special generation and I revere their pedigree of how they shaped what we call the best gathering of players ever in our Zimbabwean history. Debates rage on social media as to how they didn’t achieve much, yet they were supremely talented and, this argument is for another day.
We mourn a legend, a first Warriors captain to lead brave teammates in a battle and come out victorious against Kenya in the CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup in 1985.
Misheck coached the national team and won the Cosafa Cup tournament in 2000, and here lies a history-making gentle giant whose great deeds and service to the full development of football is second to none, yet not so recognised in his painful days of illness.
Rest in peace Captain Scania, football will never be the same again.
Online Reporter