Grabowski built bridge to Europe for Zim players

Eddie Chikamhi

Zimpapers Sports Hub

WHEN Gift Muzadzi boarded a flight to Poland in 1994, he was only 20 and had played just two seasons of top-flight football.

Few Zimbabwean goalkeepers had dared to imagine a professional career in Europe. Muzadzi was about to become the first.

The man behind that journey was Wieslaw Grabowski, the Polish coach who turned raw talent from Zimbabwe’s high-density suburbs into professional footballers and created a pathway to Europe for several generations.

Grabowski died in Poland on Wednesday last week at the age of 70 after suffering heart complications.

For the players, coaches, administrators and supporters whose lives he touched during more than four decades in Zimbabwean football, news of his death brought grief and memories of a man they regarded as a coach, mentor and father figure.

To Muzadzi, he was a gift.

“He was the greatest gift of our lives,” said Muzadzi.

“I always tell my colleagues that Grabowski was the biggest gift. He made the Gift people talk about today. He was the best gift God gave me in my football career.”

Muzadzi made his top-flight debut for Darryn T in 1992 and was named among the Soccer Star of the Year finalists in his first season. Two years later, Grabowski used his links in Poland to secure him a move to lower-division side Radomiak Radom. His performances earned him a transfer to Polish top-flight club Lech Poznań, where he made 20 league appearances the following season. Muzadzi was not an isolated success.

Norman Mapeza and John Phiri had travelled to Poland a year earlier, becoming Grabowski’s first exports to Europe.

George Mbwando, Alois Bunjira, Dickson Choto, Shingi Kawondera, Takesure Chinyama, Stewart Murisa, Lloyd Chitembwe and Costa Nhamoinesu were among the players whose careers were shaped by his work.

Former ZIFA chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze said Grabowski created a pathway from Zimbabwe’s high-density suburbs to European football.

“He created career paths for young footballers from Zimbabwe,” said Mashingaidze, who is now an administrator at Scottland.

“He turned the high-density suburbs around Harare, Chitungwiza and beyond into football talent nurseries whose products were taken to Europe, thanks to his contacts with top European clubs.

“He worked closely with the late Never Gombera, who had an eye for special raw talent.

“He built a potent elite football club in Darryn T, with players who were ready for top European leagues.”

Grabowski’s contribution went beyond identifying talent and arranging foreign moves.

He understood the lives of the young players he recruited, many of them from difficult backgrounds, and tried to create conditions in which they could develop.

“He could look after the players because he understood the challenges faced by young boys from the ghetto,” said Muzadzi.

“Whenever he returned from Europe, he would bring gifts such as soccer boots, training jerseys and even cash to assist us.

“He could even rent a flat for players with potential, where he could monitor their progress in a professional and controlled environment.”

Grabowski demanded discipline and constantly reminded his players that talent alone would not take them far.

“He told us the most important thing was to change our mindset and to be serious and professional in everything we did because football could take us anywhere in the world,” said Muzadzi.

“It happened. He was the man who took us to Europe.”

Muzadzi believes Grabowski’s contribution deserved recognition beyond football.

“It is sad that death had the final say, but he left a lasting legacy in Zimbabwean football,” he said.

“Some of the most talked-about players in our football came through his hands.

“To me, he is a hero. If there was a National Heroes Acre for football personalities, Grabowski would deserve to be there.”

His players also carried a recognisable technical identity.

Bunjira said it was often possible to identify a footballer who had passed through Grabowski’s hands by the way he controlled and struck the ball.

“Grabowski had a very big impact on Zimbabwean football because the players he groomed at Darryn T cut across generations,” he said.

“It started with the likes of David Mwanza, Forbes Ndaba and Jona Tatsanangurwa, from the Darryn Tornadoes team he coached before it became Darryn T.

“Then it came to our generation. After us, there was another group that included Shingi Kawondera, Musa Jenitala and Elliot Matsika, and then another with Shaw Bunjira and Edmore Guri.

“He had that individual touch.

Grabowski arrived in Zimbabwe in 1985 under a government exchange programme and became a major influence on the domestic game through Darryn T Africa United. The club grew into one of the country’s most productive football nurseries, drawing talent from Mbare, Chitungwiza and other high-density areas before preparing the players for senior football and opportunities abroad.

His influence also reached the national teams.

Grabowski guided Zimbabwe’s Under-23 side to a silver medal at the 1995 All-Africa Games in Harare, one of the country’s finest achievements in international age-group football, and later had a brief spell in charge of the senior national team in 2002.

He had arrived in Africa with considerable experience, having been part of Poland’s technical team at the 1978 FIFA World Cup before coaching Zambia between 1983 and 1984.

But it was his work with young Zimbabwean footballers that defined his time in the country.

Jenitala, who played for Darryn T in 2000 before moving to Europe, said Grabowski’s influence stayed with his players long after their football careers.

“If it wasn’t for Grabowski, I wouldn’t have reached the levels I reached,” he said.

“People can say whatever they want about him, but to me he was like a father.

“The life skills he taught us are still helping us today. He was the one who opened the door for us to go to Europe.”

Grabowski is survived by his wife, Krystyna.

His passing away has again drawn attention to what Zimbabwean football once had in Darryn T.

It was more than a club. It was a system that found talent, supported it, polished it and gave it a route into professional football.

Three decades after Muzadzi boarded that flight to Poland, Zimbabwe is still searching for another pathway quite like it.