Online Reporter
Clemens Marijeni
STEWART Murisa hung up his boots on 21 November 2015 at the end of a great football career in which he scaled dizzy heights of success to rightly earn legendary status in Zimbabwean football.
On the day he eventually called it quits, 23 years after making his top-flight debut for Darryn T, Murisa scored twice for Northern Region Division One side Lake Harvest.
The brace earned his side a 2-2 draw against Yadah and the point gained thereof ensured his team avoided relegation on the very last day.
He was the head coach and had donned his boots to lead his charges from the front in the true and fitting affirmation of his leadership qualities which had been the hallmark of his character throughout his career.
It was a great career indeed, laden with great goals and great memories as he so eloquently narrates in this auto-biography. He details his life-story with astonishing sincerity from his tough upbringing in St Mary’s Chitungwiza through to his success while powering CAPS United to the 1996 league title and his personal elation in winning that year’s Soccer Star of The Year award before taking his talent to the South African league.
Stewart’s history-making feat as the first player to turn out for the country’s top three giants Dynamos, Highlanders and CAPS United is one of those which illustrated the amazing power that he had of smashing what would have been perceived as invisible barriers in the sport.
After making his bow on Saturday 21 November 1995, The Herald newspaper of Tuesday 25 November ran a powerful and fitting tribute to Stewart’s brilliance. Sports Editor Robson Sharuko wrote: “. . . A powerful forward, he had first caught the eye in the colours of Darryn T before spending a season at Blackpool in 1995, where he helped the colourful Harare side battle toe-to-toe with Dynamos in a riveting league championship race, where the two rivals ended with the same number of points and the same goal difference, only for the Glamour Boys to win the marathon by virtue of having scored more goals.”
But, a year later, in the colours of the Green Machine, Murisa would have his revenge. Partnering Alois Bunjira, Simon Dambaza, Morgan Nkathazo, Felix Antonio in a frontline backed by an awesome midfield that featured the likes of Farai Mbidzo, Joe Mugabe and Lloyd Chitembwe, Murisa — nicknamed Shutto by the fans — exploded into a forward who terrorised defences on the domestic front. And, crucially, he was also a man for the big occasion.
His fierce strike in the BP League Cup semi-final against Dynamos, before a packed Rufaro, in 1996, torched crowd trouble, leading to the abandonment of the epic encounter, before CAPS United recovered from the trauma of those violent disturbances to win the tournament.
However, the same hands of the football gods, which had blessed him so much with a talent that plucked him away from poverty in St Marys township of Chitungwiza to a comfortable life in South Africa, were also quick to curse him just when his career appeared set to go onto the next level.
For Murisa suffered a horrible knee injury, which kept him away from the game for almost two years and when he returned home, after two operations, he surprised many by choosing Dynamos — the team which represented the ultimate enemy during his playing days on the domestic scene — as the home where he would undergo his rehabilitation.
However, the following year, he was gone — after a number of experienced players were kicked out of the club — and joined Highlanders where he made a big impression, he attracted interest from South African clubs who had long believed that he was finished.
A return to South Africa soon followed and he played for a number of teams, including Bidvest Wits and coming close to breaking into Cypriot football . . .”
The excerpt aptly sums up this auto-biography. However, being Shutto’s Untold Story, he goes into intricate detail to reveal some aspects of his life that had never been in the public domain prior to this publication. For the first time this story opens up Stewart’s emotional disposition with a conscientious expose of his inner-feelings in highlighting some pertinent issues that he dealt with.
These include the injury and how he coped with the resultant disappointment of his impending dream move to Europe being shattered. It is not only the emotional feel of this story which stands out but also the amazing honesty and candour and the humility to accept his shortcomings in both his personal life and career.
I was in the sports reporting field just about the same time that Stewart was in his prime.
I can’t thank this legend enough for this honour and for giving me the strength to believe in myself once again.
It was for that reason that I pledged, in my heart of hearts, to repay the kindness by exerting my all and to expend my energy and the rest of the year 2024 in pain-staking research and fact verification in order for Shutto’s Untold Story to be told in the most fitting manner worthy of his standing not only as a true legend and icon of Zimbabwean football, but a very good man too.
Marijeni wrote Murisa’s autobiograph
