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THREE years ago, Nyasha Mushekwi left Chinese Super League side, Dalian Pro, for free as Rafa Benitez wanted to create space for Venezuela forward Salomon Rondon.
The veteran Zimbabwe international, who turns 35 on Sunday, opted to move a rung lower, into the second-tier league, where he joined Hangzhou Greentown.
His goals helped Greentown to power their way into the Chinese top-flight league.
Today, Mushekwi and his club find themselves sitting higher, on the country’s Super League table, when compared to Dalian Pro, the club he was forced to leave, three years ago.
Benitez, the Spanish coach who offloaded him, left in January last year, before joining Everton five months later, in a romance that was doomed from the beginning.
By January, this year, he had been fired after losing nine of his last 13 games.
Rondon is back in the English Premiership, at Everton, for what was another reunion with Benitez, but one league goal, since his arrival in August last year, represents a poor return.
Mushekwi has scored three goals in the nine matches he has played, on his return to the Chinese Super League, and only Croatian forward, Franko Andrijasevic, with four goals, has scored more for Greentown.
The club sits in seventh place, with 18 points from 11 games, after winning five, drawing three and losing three matches.
They have scored 15 and conceded nine.
Greentown’s next league match is against Shanghai Port on Saturday.
Dalian find themselves in 15th place, on the 18-team table, with just one win from their opening 11 games, ahead of a match against the Mighty Lions today. With just eight points, from a possible 33, Dalian are already 10 points behind Mushekwi’s Greentown.
They are also five points ahead of basement club Hebei, who have won one and lost 12 of their opening 13 league games.
Wuhan Three Towns lead the championship race with 34 points, from their first dozen games, in which they have dropped only two points.
Shandong Taishan, on 33 points, and Henan Songshan, on 26 points, complete the pack of the leading trio.
A trio of Brazilians lead the Golden Boot race.
Marcao, the 28-year-old forward, has scored 12 goals for Wuhang Three Towns while his countryman and teammate, Davidson, has scored eight goals. Another Brazilian, Cryson, of Shandong Taishan, is third in the race for the Golden Boot, on seven goals.
Mushekwi has been in China for the past six years.
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter