Online Reporter
Robson Sharuko
H-Metro Editor
SO much has been written, and said, about Herentals fielding the oldest footballer who is still regularly featuring in top-flight football games on the continent – Innocent Benza.
The 54-year-old businessman, who owns his family’s club, whose coach is his brother and whose captain is his son, has been ridiculed in some circles as a man who is a mockery to the domestic Premiership.
Some of the criticism has been deeply personal and a lot of it has largely been misguided.
It has clouded the reality that this is a man who has a natural love affair with football and is a man on a mission to push the physical and mental barriers to break records associated with longevity in this game.
Benza, who is nicknamed IB9 by his teammates and his club’s fans, has been trending this week after his bag of flicks in the Students 3-1 win over Kwekwe United was compressed into a highlights video package.
Remarkably, Benza has played more than 100 league games, featuring in the first 45 minutes, since the end of the Covid-19 break and, for a man who has been over 50 all that time, it’s a fascinating statistic.
And, there are also some tough questions which his biggest critics need to confront:
• If Benza is so ‘useless,’ as his critics claim, why then has his team, which they claim plays its matches one-man short in the first half when he is on the field, been very competitive?
• Why is it that they have avoided relegation since they made their top-flight league debut in 2018 while the other three clubs who arrived with them – Mutare City, Nichrut and Bulawayo City – were all relegated that season?
• Why is it that even in their debut season in 2018, Benza and his students were the best performing Harare side after completing the season in sixth place on 51 points while CAPS United finished eighth with 48 points and DeMbare finished 11th with 42 points?
• What does it say for both DeMbare and the Green Machine that a Herentals side, which the majority of their fans claim plays with a man short in the first half of all the games, finishes higher than the two old giants in the championship race?
• Assuming that someone will argue that in 2018 Benza was 47, and probably more productive on the field, then why is it that a 53-year-old IB9 still helped Herentals finish the season as the best performing Harare club last year – in a higher position than both Dynamos and CAPS United?
Since the resumption of football after the Covid-19 outbreak, DeMbare and CAPS have provided Emmanuel Jalai, Godknows Murwira, Kingsley Mureremba, Donald Mudadi, Tanaka Shandirwa, Frank Makarati and William Manondo among the Soccer Stars of the Year.
Mudadi even finished second in the poll, and could have won the Soccer Star of the Year award had his coach voted, which means these two clubs have had a fair share of some of the best talent in the domestic Premiership.
If Benza is as ‘useless’ as his critics claim, it should be obvious that these two giants would not only be outplaying the Students but would be humiliating them on the occasions that they meet them in the league battles.
Football, just like any other sport, is all about statistics.
It’s the statistics that tell us that Dynamos are the most successful Zimbabwean football club in history, with 21 league championships, and CAPS United are the second most successful club in the capital, with five league titles.
So what do the statistics tell us about Dynamos, CAPS United and Benza’s Herentals since the first ball was kicked in the 2024 Castle Lager Premiership season to this day?
What do the statistics tell us about Dynamos, CAPS United and Benza’s Herentals since the first ball was kicked in the domestic Premiership when authorities cleared football to return from its Covid-19 break?
Here are some interesting league tables.
THE HARARE LEAGUE TABLE SINCE THE FIRST GAME OF LAST SEASON
P W D L F A Pts
Herentals 58 22 21 15 51 44 87
CAPS United 58 19 16 13 56 60 73
Dynamos 58 13 26 19 30 47 65
Key Notes:
A team with Benza in its starting XI has won 22 more points than Dynamos since the first game of last year.
Herentals have scored 21 more goals than DeMbare during the same period and has had the best defence among the Harare sides who were there from last year.
THE HARARE LEAGUE TABLE SINCE THE FIRST GAME AFTER COVID BREAK
P W D L F A Pts
Herentals 126 47 43 36 121 107 184
Dynamos 126 44 46 36 100 80 180
CAPS United 126 39 42 45 128 134 159
Key Notes:
Benza and his Herentals have been the best performing Harare side in the PSL since football returned from its Covid-19 break.
They have accrued the highest number of points, during the period under review, and they have won the highest number of matches.
Remarkably, in the four seasons that have been played, the Students have scored more goals than the Glamour Boys and even if they donate 10 goals to Dynamos, they will still be ahead of DeMbare in terms of goals scored.
CAPS United have been the highest scoring Harare side since the game returned from the Covid-19 break but their 128 goals are just seven goals better than a team which the critics claim plays with one-man short in the first half of its matches.
HERENTALS VS DYNAMOS/CAPS RECORD SINCE RETURN FROM COVID-19 BREAK
P W D L F A Pts
Herentals 14 5 5 4 14 14 20
AGAINST CAPS
P W D L F A Pts
Herentals 7 2 2 3 8 11 8
AGAINST DYNAMOS
P W D L F A Pts
Herentals 7 3 3 1 6 3 12
Key Notes:
Dynamos have only beaten Herentals ONCE since the domestic Premiership returned from the Covid-19 break.
And, still, some of their fans claim this is the same Herentals which plays with a man short in their showdowns.
Sharuko, all these “questions” you are asking have only one answer which is ” OUR FOOTBALL HAS BECOME A JOKE” It’s not about IB9 and his age. It’s about the poor quality of football in this country that makes IB9, Knowledge Musona, Khama Billiat, Ronald Pfumbudzayi and other over 30+ years players dominate our football. The poor performance of Dynamos, Caps United and Highlanders doesn’t signify the rise of small teams but the falling of our football standards.