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Tadious Manyepo-Sports Reporter
IT’S Tendai Samanja’s Swansong.
He is strapping the Harare City captain’s armband for one last time.
He isn’t sure how he is feeling.
But he was somewhere between happiness and sadness.
This is a boy who has achieved a lot in his 13-or-so-year stint in the domestic Premiership — a league title and two Chibuku Super Cup trophies to his name.
He also has every reason to be sad.
The dreadlocked midfielder is leaving the stage when his legs can still carry him.
This is November 2018 and Samanja is still 32-years-old. He is an age-mate with Lionel Messi, who is at the peak of his powers at Barcelona and younger than Cristiano Ronaldo who is also at the peak of his powers at Juventus. Samanja himself feels he can play six more years. But the Sunshine Boys coach then, Mark Harrison, sees things the other way. The Briton prefers to work with young blood.
Kelvin Shangiwa, Tellmore Pio, Stanley Masukuta, Learnmore Muyambo, Takudzwa Muvirimi, Tatenda Tumba and Brighton Chayambuka among others have been introduced into the fray.
They are giving a good account of themselves and exonerating Harrison’s principles.
Samanja is the captain but he is almost always on the bench.
Harrison sits him down. He tells him his playing days are numbered. In a respectable manner. “Harrison called me and he said he wanted to talk to me. I met him at his flat and he said look, we are now giving a chance to the youngsters but I don’t want to discard you,” recalls Samanja.
“So he said I should retire and start pursuing coaching. He promised to help me. Harare City guaranteed me a job. So I said, well, let me take the offer.”
And the day to officially wave goodbye to the game is here.
The stage is perfect. Gibbo Stadium is packed to the rafters. The atmosphere is lit.
This is the biggest game the Triangle facility is hosting. A Chibuku Super Cup final. It’s Samanja’s third final in the same competition. He has won both the previous editions with the same team.
And he could sign off in style, by winning it for the third time too.
The Sunshine City Boys are the favourites. Their hosts Triangle are in the final for only the first time. But they have Taurai Mangwiro, who knows Harare City like the back of his hand as their coach.
Mangwiro has coached the municipality team before and knows how to exploit their flaws. He could be Samanja’s main impediment to a memorable exit.
But he can’t stop the party before kickoff. Contemporary musician Mukudzei Mukombe, popularly known as Jah Prayzah is riding high with his latest album “Chitubu.”
He is invited to perform at this grand finale.
But he chooses to serenade with a song from a different album. “Goto” off “Mudhara Vachauya” released two years earlier. Samanja, together with his teammates takes a walk across the pitch, to feel it before the official warm-up. He is dancing to the song. So is everyone.
Then two ladies seated next to the media section shout on top of their voices.
“Samanja!” They suddenly draw the attention. More like what Jah Prayzah has done.
One of them is Francisca, Samanja’s sister.
And the other one is the footballer’s wife.
Francisca has travelled all the way from South Africa where she works.
Just to see her brother making an official exit bow from the game which transformed the whole family’s life back in Bindura.
She deserves a very special place to watch from. She deserves to see her brother lifting that trophy.
She has missed all of his crowning moments before. She was already working and living in South Africa when a 22-year-old Samanja won the Premiership title in 2008 with Monomotapa.
She wanted to witness that golden Monomotapa moment when her brother together with such players as Christopher Samakweri, Daniel Zokoto, Daniel Kamunenga, Charles Chiutsa and Asani Nhongo among others succeeded Dynamos as the kings of local football.
She has missed the 2015 and 2017 moments when Harare City won the Chibuku Super Cup too.
And now is the chance.
Just 90 minutes of doing things right on the part of Harare City will finally see her witness a proud moment.
But Triangle are at home. They are solid as well. They bring their A-Game.
A blitzkrieg, spearheaded by a talisman called Phineas Bamusi- himself perfected at Harare City after arriving from Buffaloes torn apart the visitors.
At the end of the 90, the scoreline reads 2-0 in favour of the home team.
Disappointment for Samanja. Disappointment for Fransisca. But the latter is still happy. For more reasons than one. She has finally witnessed her brother play in a cup final. Live from the terraces. She is not just here to support her brother. It’s more than sentimental.
She is a heroine.
Had it not been for her, the 2013 Soccer Star of the Year finalist might have never been a footballer in the first place.
Even Samanja himself doesn’t see a sister when he is with Francisca.
He sees a mother. A guardian. A principal. A teacher. A spiritual woman. All rolled in one. Back in Bindura where the Samanja family was raised, things are tough.
The family is disintegrated following the separation of their parents.
The father walks out.
He remarries and forgets he has 10 children to look after. The burden rests on the mother.
Unfortunately, the mother dies.
Tendai Samanja, the last born is only 10 years old. Francisca, the first born is 19. The family is taken under the custody of their maternal grandmother who would apply for her grandchildren’s registration certificates under her family’s name.
Samanja. Things are tight at home.
Samanja loves football and he, just like his age-mates, always plays the game on the rugged tarmac surfaces. Barefoot. The situation at home is desperate. A faint, delicate line separates Samanja’s dropping out of school and enrolment for Form 1.
Actually, he is resigned to fate.
But Francisca takes the ultimate sacrifice.
She quickly looks for a job as a maid just to ensure her brother goes to school. “Things were not rosy at home. We were 10 kids at my grandmother’s house. Tindo (Samanja) used to play the game at a ground called Motoro near our home.
“Aingoti team yavo ikakundwa aingonhonga bhora rake bhora risati rapera nekutonanga kumba. “We didn’t have resources for him to enrol for Form 1 but looking at his age, it pained me and I decided to look for a job as a maid. I told my employer the story and they agreed to pay me in advance so that we could secure a place for him at Chipindura High School,” said Fransisca.
And everything just opens up. Samanja breaks into the school team. He is identified by Ashanti Gold FC in the first division and he is placed in the team’s U16 side.
The team is based about six kilometres from where Samanja stays. He walks to and from training every day.
His stock rose quickly. Bindura United soon knocks on his door. He joins them in his early Form 2 days.
The club is, in a way, related to Monomotapa FC.
They offer and start to pay his school fees.
Samanja shows tremendous growth in his game.
Monomotapa, still in Division One, takes him to Vainona High School in Harare on a scholarship.
In 2005 and 2006, the young Samanja is a bench-warmer following Monomotapa’s promotion into the top-flight.
But he is earning decently and is looking after the family back in Bindura well. Then Norman Mapeza takes over at a club affectionately known as Monoz.
He has faith in Samanja. And the player goes full throttle. A league title follows. Then the CAF Champions League in which Monomotapa reaches the last eight. “It was something extraordinary. I was so happy to achieve the feat. Had it not been for my sister who sacrificed for me to go to school, maybe I could have been wasted,” said Samanja.
“In 2011 I went to CAPS United then 2015 Harare City where we won the Chibuku Super Cup the same year.
“In 2018, after winning a single Warriors cap against Botswana, I called it quits to concentrate on coaching.
“I am working with Harare City juniors and I look forward to upgrading myself before I become a big coach in the country.
“Of course, thanks to my selfless sister.”
Online Reporter