Online Reporter
Innocent Kurira-Zimpapers Sports Hub
FOR Benjani Mwaruwari, watching his son make his first league start for Highlanders was always going to be different.
He may have sat in the dugout as the Bosso coach, but somewhere beneath the professional exterior was a proud father watching his boy, Benjani Junior, take another step in a football journey of his own.
Benjani Mwaruwari Junior was handed his first league start for Highlanders against Hardrock last Saturday at Barbourfields, giving the father and son a moment that will remain special long after the final whistle.
But once Junior crossed the white line, his famous surname carried no special treatment.
To his father, he was simply another Highlanders player expected to do his job.
“When he gets onto the pitch, I look at him as any other player. The father figure is only at home. It doesn’t affect me. I don’t know about him,” Benjani said.
It is a fascinating dynamic.
At Highlanders, Benjani is the boss.
At home, he is simply dad.
And the former Warriors captain appears determined to keep those two worlds apart.
Benjani said he does not want football to dominate their relationship away from the pitch, believing Junior needs the freedom to develop without constantly feeling like he is being coached by his father.
“I think he did okay on his first start,” he said.
“We don’t talk much about football. I want to give him that leverage to feel free.”
For a young player trying to establish himself at a club with the size and expectations of Highlanders, having his father as coach could easily make football an unavoidable topic at home.
Benjani, however, is deliberately trying to prevent that.
“If we talk football at home, it becomes too much, so I try not to talk much about football at home,” he said.
That approach means Junior gets to be a player at Highlanders and a son at home, two roles that could easily become blurred given their unusual circumstances.
When the boots are on and Junior is on the pitch, he is one of the boys. When the football is packed away, the coach steps aside.
Dad takes over.
