Online Reporter
Media Mpofu and Lovemore Dube
FORGOTTEN former Sheffield Wednesday and Nottingham Forest midfielder Cecil Nyoni, is making a fresh mark on the field, this time at home.
He is sponsoring a sports gala for under-12 children in his old Tshabalala neighbourhood, with action starting this Saturday and finals set for October 4.
Roy Phiri, the former Matabeleland Athletics Board chairman and spokesperson for the Tshabalala-Sizinda Old School, confirmed the event and said it will feature football and netball.
“Tshabalala-Sizinda Old School will be hosting the inaugural CK Nyoni tournament, which is sponsored by CKN Foundation, led by Cecil Nyoni, who was born in Bulawayo and grew up in Gwanda and later moved to the UK, where he played football for Sheffield Wednesday and Nottingham Forest. As a Tshabalala-born child, he always had an interest in Tshabalala and in December, he visited the boys,” Phiri said.
The organisers, most of them now in their sixties, were shaped by the vibrant Bulawayo City Council Youth Club of their youth and want today’s children to have the same opportunities. They formed the Tshabalala-Sizinda Grassroot League to keep youngsters off the streets. The CK Nyoni tournament will serve as the grand finale to that league’s successful season.
For Nyoni, 33, the project is deeply personal. Once tipped as a future Sheffield Wednesday star, he lost his way to gambling, alcohol and drugs.
“I knew every drug dealer in Sheffield,” he told The Star. “They all knew I’d been at Wednesday and thought I had loads of money. They’d let me take drugs off them and thought I could pay them with my football money, but the fact was I’d gambled all my money away. I couldn’t afford it. I had been scared to answer the phone and it came to the point he thought I was taking the piss out of him. All the people I thought were my mates that I had been partying with, doing cocaine with, didn’t come to help me. They were talking about stabbing me and where they were going to bury my body at Snake Pass. I’ve never been so scared in my life.”
Nyoni’s mother intervened, taking him to rehabilitation.
After his release from a mental health centre four years ago, he began rebuilding his life around family. He now speaks at football academies, sharing his story as a warning and hopes to study for a PhD in mental health care.
Football had once promised so much. He played both in defence and midfield, moved to Nottingham Forest and later turned out for a string of English non-league clubs, including Matlock, Stocksbridge Park Steels and Goole. But when a transfer to Limerick in Ireland collapsed, he sought solace in drink and drifted away from the professional game, eventually working as a utility bills salesman.
Last December, while visiting Zimbabwe, Nyoni was moved by the raw talent of a local youngster and bought him sportswear. That gesture sparked the idea for the CK Nyoni tournament.
“We have Under-10 and Under-12s and we have what we call Tshabalala and Sizinda Old School, who are the organisers of the event and are also running Tshabalala-Sizinda Grassroot League, which has eight teams and these eight teams will be competing in the tournament,” Phiri explained.
“We are building the foundation to have a lasting and effective impact for kids — not just in Bulawayo but also in other townships through a copy-and-paste system that can be scaled. The Foundation is also growing here in the UK, where we are establishing pathways, coaching programmes and educational projects. The goal is to build something substantial on both sides in Zimbabwe and in the UK so that the next generation of young players have real opportunities, support and inspiration,” said Nyoni last night.
Nyoni now sees sport as a powerful shield against the temptations that almost ended his own life. This weekend’s gala is his first step in turning personal pain into a lasting community gift.
