admin
Tadious Manyepo Sports Reporter
MIGHTY Warriors winger Alice Moyo hasn’t accessed Brazil legend Pele’s 1977 autobiography called “My life and the beautiful game”.
At least as yet.
This is a recollection by the late Edson Arantes do Nascimento, popularly known as Pele, which he did upon his retirement from the game some 46 years ago.
Football has since then been widely referred to as “the beautiful game”.
Pele himself was an embodiment of excellence. The three-time World Cup winner is widely regarded as the Greatest of All Time (GOAT) and for good reasons too.
He perfected the football art well before the invention of modern training and coaching methods.
In an era where there was no social media to enhance the exaggeration of the prowess possessed by Portugal poster boy Cristiano Ronaldo and his fellow Argentine superstar Lionel Messi, still Pele was the talk of the world. In an era where television gadgets to watch the World Cup were few and far between, the discourse concentrated on him.
He was naturally talented and needed no scientific approach to the game like in the modern era where football, in an attempt to enhance its appeal, is in a way increasingly becoming “some robotic game”, given the never-ending application of a flurry of inventions.
And Pele was right to coin the phrase, ”the beautiful game”, given the way he used to carry himself on the pitch.
He wasn’t raised in a well-up family as well.
He actually used to play a ball made of plastic stashed in a sock with his colleagues mockingly nicknaming him “Pele” for his failure to properly pronounce the name of one goalkeeper by the name “Bile”.
And some snapshots should have been spinning in his mind when he described football in such a unique way.
For 22-year-old Moyo, the game is more than just beautiful.
Yet she never really liked this game.
She had all but one of the makings of a perfect player for a game she dearly loved — basketball. She still loves her hoops really well and she can’t easily pass where the game is taking place.
But for her tactical awareness, shooting eloquence and passing accuracy, she lacks a key factor for this game — height.
It’s something she used to even pray for.
Academically, Moyo wasn’t that gifted.
Yet, abandoned by her parents and living in a Children’s Home in Old Mutare, she had to pick a skill to enable her survive on her own when the time comes.
There was no women’s football at the Old Mutare Children’s Home.
“I knew my academic shortcomings. You know being in an orphanage is not one of the best things in life. There were times when I used to curse my mere survival. No one really told me how I ended up in a Children’s Home,” said Moyo. “There was a struggle in my only mind. I had so many questions which still linger in my life but no one was ready or is ready to respond. So to fight off my sometimes suicidal thoughts, I decided to play basketball. But I also realised that I was short.
“Then I decided to join the boys football team at our Home. It was like taboo because only boys used to play football. For me, it was just a hobby and I never thought I would be able to take it to a professional level.”
Not even in her wildest imagination did she think she would be head hunted to sign for a foreign club.
Moyo, together with her former Faith Drive Queens teammates Bethel Kondo and Cathrine Gwangwara have signed for Zambian champions Green Buffaloes.
They will be some of the lucky Zimbabweans to play international football when they represent the Zambian side in the CAF Women’s Champions League.
Moyo told The Herald after clinching the deal from Zambia that the feeling is still surreal. “Never in my life did I think I would be making headlines. I grew up an orphan. The time I moved from the Children’s Home, I met some players who were coming from their homes. “I used to admire their way of life before gogo Musikavanhu sat me down and told me to focus on my career,” said Moyo.
“I can only advice those who are at a disadvantaged state right now to keep the focus. Hard-work pays a lot.”
Moyo mastered some key components of the game playing with those boys at the Children’s Home. She would be drafted into the Hatzel School team and in 2016 she was one of those who set the National Youth Games alive in Hwange. Her brilliance took the interest of a flourishing girls football academy based in Mutare, Faith Drive Queens.
Touched by her plight, club proprietor, 66-year old Gogo Nelia Musikavanhu, decided to adopt Moyo.
She facilitated for her transfer to Nyamauru High School in Mutare to allow her time to develop as a footballer.
“I am the one who then decided to adopt her. Even up to now, Alice is my child. My home is the only place she calls home,” said Musikavanhu.
“I have adopted some kids before and also seeing some of my products from Faith Drive Queens flourishing is what makes me want to do even more.” Faith Drive Queens coach Admire Mahachi said Moyo can scale dizzy heights if she stays grounded.
“Football is a beautiful game. I have seen Moyo rising from a nothing to someone who now plays for the Mighty Warriors and Zambian champions,” said Mahachi.
Peter Tanyanyiwa
Online Reporter