Lovemore Dube
INSPIRED by midfielders like Lovemore Ncube, the late Benjamin Nkonjera and Willard Khumalo, former Tanganda striker, Blessing Gumiso arrived at Bosso’s Barbourfields training grounds uninvited.
It was one bold decision for Gum Gum to dump his just relegated Mutare club whose franchise had moved to Gweru.
As a young player Gumiso did not entertain the idea of staying in Division One and felt he could find a home in a rebuilding Highlanders in 1998 after a majority of the heroes of the late 1980s and early to mid-1990s were retiring.
The club needed new blood to return to its former glory status days.
One of the bravest player movements of my generation was when Blessing Gumiso left Mutare for Bulawayo to train with Highlanders.
“I was never invited. I had no place to stay so I got myself a lodge to stay at during the trial period,” said Gumiso from his Johannesburg base in South Africa.
He couldn’t speak a word in Ndebele.
The only person he knew in Bulawayo was the late Amon Chimbalanga, who was also from Mutare and was at that time taking over from a retiring Johannes Tshuma in goal at Highlanders.
Born and bred in Mutare, Gumiso was one of the best dribblers growing up — alongside the likes of Blessing Makunike, Joseph Takaringofa, Eddy Dube, Andrew Kamanga, Taurai Makukutu, Joseph Kabwe and Nyarai Masunde.
After weeks of training, the late Rahman Gumbo converted him to a defensive midfielder — a position he executed to perfection in the four consecutive league triumphs which also had a league and cup double.
He had arrived and became a key cog in what has gone on to be known as the Class of 1998.
He was one of the most consistent players of that era and literally owned the anchormen’s role at a time there was Alexander Phiri and Bekithemba Ndlovu whom he would at times be paired with to play in a double defensive link tactical approach.
He was voted the club’s most consistent player.
He is happy to have found himself playing alongside Siza Khoza, Gift Lunga (Jnr), the late Richard Choruma and Charles Chilufya in a very exciting era of some great midfield duels against clubs like CAPS United and Dynamos.
“My coming to Highlanders was motivated by my watching players like Willard Khumalo, Benjamin Nkonjera and Lovemore Ncube. I used to be amused by watching them at Sakubva feel the pitch’s turf while putting on pushovers only to return later putting on football boots.
“I worked hard. I arrived in Bulawayo as a striker ready to fight for a position but somehow Rahman Gumbo converted me to a midfielder. I have no regrets as that allowed me to write my name on Zimbabwe soccer folklore and in the history of the oldest club in the country. It was a big personal sacrifice jumping onto a bus to a city where I only knew Amon Chimbalanga, to have won four championships is something to savour for the rest of my life,” said Gumiso now an owner and coach at Northern Blues in Johannesburg, a junior development project in South Africa.
“His life motto is: “Keep pushing and pulling. The sky is not even the limit.”
He says that has helped him push beyond limits.
