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Sharuko On Saturday
HE has a name associated with immortality and greatness when it comes to celebrities and sporting icons – MICHAEL.
It’s the first name of the GOAT when it comes to basketball – Michael Jordan, the gravity-defying superstar who transformed the Chicago Bulls into the world’s favourite NBA franchise.
Nike called him Air Jordan and, boy oh boy, in his prime years he could fly like a butterfly and sting like a bee.
His number 23 remains such an iconic shirt number that today’s generation of superstars like LeBron James still wear it both as a tribute and an endorsement of his greatness.
Even football legends, like David Beckham, also found it romantic to wear the number 23 jersey in what was a fitting tribute to the influence that MJ had on their careers.
It’s the first name of the man who could have been the GOAT in heavyweight boxing – Mike Tyson.
The youngest heavyweight boxing champion in history, Tyson ruled the ring in the ’80s with a combination of fearlessness and a punching power, of such incredible ferocity, it could only have been borrowed from hell.
He cultivated a global following and fans called him Iron Mike, which was an acknowledgement of the steely character which was at the heart of his dominance of the heavyweight division.
That he ultimately didn’t become the GOAT, who can be mentioned on the same pages as the likes of Muhammad Ali, was because he lacked the discipline needed to touch those heights of immortality.
It’s the first name of the greatest Olympian of all-time – Michael Phelps.
His 28 medals, including 23 gold, make him the most successful and decorated Olympian ever and a thoroughbred swimmer who had not been seen before he exploded onto the scene, and who has not been seen since he left the scene.
It’s the first name of the joint record winner of the World Drivers Championships in Formula One – Michael Schumacher.
When he retired in 2012, he held the record of having the most wins (91), pole positions (68), podium finishes (155), consecutive Drivers Championships and number of total fastest laps (77).
While some of the records have since been broken by Lewis Hamilton, he still maintains the record for consecutive Drivers Championships and the number of total fastest laps.
Michael Nees, who was unveiled this week as the latest Warriors coach, knows that he will never attain such greatness to have his name written on the same page where you find the likes of Tyson, Schumacher and Phelps.
At 57, the German coach knows that the time to script the tales that has built the legacy, and greatness, of the other Michaels, and turned them into global icons, has long passed him by.
Such stories of greatness are not written by football coaches who get to the age of 57, without having taken a team to the AFCON finals.
Especially today’s AFCON finals, which now resembles an invitational tourney given that about half the CAF members now feature at the continental showcase.
When his countryman, Reinhard Fabisch, was coaching the Warriors, and battling to take them to the AFCON finals, only 10 CAF members qualified for the finals with the other two – the hosts and the holders – being guaranteed their places.
Six years earlier, only SIX CAF members qualified for the finals with the other two – the hosts and the holders – being guaranteed their places at the showcase.
I am a lifelong Warriors fan and what I want is for Michael to succeed because he is now the coach of my team and he is serving the interests of the only team whose bond with me was established when I was born.
Before I knew the face of my mother and that there was a difference in taste between milk and water, I was already a Warriors fan, bonded to this team by the mere fact that I had been born a Zimbabwean.
My love affair with the Warriors is as personal as it is emotional.
And it blinds me so much that even when they were beaten by Brazil, I felt this wave of disappointment despite the reality the gulf in class meant they were unlikely to win the contest.
WELCOME MICHAEL, ALL THE BEST MATE
I was not at the media conference where Michael Nees was unveiled as the new Warriors coach in Harare this week.
I am currently on vacation and was deep in the village with my real folks – simple people of simple lives – when the German coach was being introduced to my media colleagues.
The immediate reaction I got from my colleagues is that Michael was warmly welcomed by members of the Fourth Estate and he left a huge impression on all of them.
My colleagues have told me that he exhumed confidence and was very knowledgeable about Zimbabwean footballers, the players that we have and the players that we can have.
Even the fans’ reaction has been warm, the comments on social media have been refreshing and there is an air of expectation that Michael could add real value to their Warriors.
They are saying that he is a level-headed fellow and he needs to be given a chance to show us what he can do.
I don’t share their optimism even though, just like them, I also want Michael to succeed simply because he is coaching my team.
Well, I have seen this show before.
Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, in February 2020, another European coach was introduced to the same media by the ZIFA officials in Harare.
His name is Zdravko Logarusic.
And, like Michael Nees, he also stole the show at his unveiling ceremony.
I will reproduce the report, in this newspaper, which was written by Tadious Manyepo.
“It was quite a show and the new Warriors coach, Zdravko ”Loga’ Logarusic, was the showman.
“For, more than an hour, he took on the country’s football media, sparring with those who landed some tough questions, embracing those who appeared to warm up to him.
“He did it with the confidence of someone who knows he can deliver.
“Loga is probably the most colourful, and controversial, coach who has taken charge of the team.
“And, he is a box-office attraction, too, with the arrogance that one needs to succeed at these levels. Loga flew into the country on Wednesday night, accompanied by his Cameroonian, agent Robert Moutsinga.”
Well, this is the same Loga who went on to win just one of the 14 international matches that he took care of during his time in charge of the Warriors.
In those 14 games it showed us that one doesn’t need to be a showman, who makes a big impression at his unveiling ceremony, for one to provide a guarantee that he will be successful.
So, I still believe that despite Michael’s brilliant performance at his unveiling ceremony, it should not blind us from the reality that we appear to have gone back to the flawed formula which brought in Loga for a similar assignment.
We have been to the AFCON finals five times, including qualifying for the last three Nations Cup finals, where we were allowed to take part in, on the trot.
Now, we are under the guidance of a coach who has never taken a team to the AFCON finals, despite having spent a substantial period working on this continent.
If he takes us to the next Nations Cup finals, it would be the best achievement of his career as a coach while, for us as a nation, this would be routine stuff which Sunday Chidzambwa has managed to do twice so far.
Something which Charles Mhlauri did at the first time of asking, something which Callisto Pasuwa did at the first time of asking and something which even Loga, with just one during his stay in this country, managed to do with the Warriors.
We fired Loga, before we even went to the AFCON finals, in what was a demonstration of our ambitions that we no longer consider qualifying for the tournament as a success story.
Now, we are in a situation where we will consider Michael has done an excellent job if he finally leads a team to the AFCON finals when what we are searching for is a man who can take us beyond the group stages of this tournament.
At 57, Michael should have taken a country to the AFCON finals by now, that is the least that is expected of European coaches who come to work in Africa.
After all, his first job in Africa was in 2003.
That is two decades in the trenches of African football and, if he was the kind of coach who could have taken us to the Promised Land where we want to get, the least he should have done was to take a team to the AFCON finals.
One of the teams that he was in charge of was Rwanda and they have not only been to the AFCON finals but they find themselves at the top of our World Cup qualifying group.
Yes, I wouldn’t have expected him to take the Seychelles to the AFCON finals, when he was in charge of them, but it’s also a reflection of his pedigree as a coach that he was the kind of gaffer who could be hired to take charge of the Indian Ocean island nation.
I still believe that his CV shows that he is a coach of coaches, someone like the late Nelson Matongorere, and I was happy that one of my colleagues, Mr Tich of ZTN, observed that after that media conference.
This means that I will stick to my position that we should have hired Michael as our technical director, to work in the ZIFA office, taking care of the programmes related to the technical issues, especially the coaching of coaches.
Even after his impressive performance at his unveiling ceremony, the fact that we hired him as the Warriors coach still doesn’t sit well with me because there is nothing, on his CV, to suggest that he will write a success story with our national team.
I still don’t believe that someone who worked as technical director in Israel and also the country’s Under-21 coach and also coached the Kosovo Under-21 coach doesn’t have the pedigree to really change the Warriors from a team, which only qualifies for the Warriors, to one which can qualify for the knockout stages of the tournament.
I will support Michael because he is my team’s coach.
Hopefully, he will be our Harve Renard, the man who took Zambia to AFCON success.
If that happens, he will be the first German coach to win the Nations Cup in 23 years.
That is the number that Michael Jordan used to wear on his jersey with the Chicago Bulls.
To God Be The Glory!
Peace to the GEPA Chief, the Big Fish, George Norton, Daily Service, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and all the Chakariboys still in the struggle. Come on Chegutu Pirates!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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You can also interact with me on the ZTV football programme, Game Plan, where I join the legendary Charles “CNN” Mabika on Wednesdays
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