Of course Khama deserves our support, but . .

Makomborero Mutimukulu

Special Correspondent

BILLIAT Battering Slammed — this newspaper screamed on its back page yesterday.

Before I indulge you further, dear reader, let me allow you to wish me a Happy Birthday, I turned 37 yesterday, former Warriors striker Tendai Ndoro shares in the same joy, as he turned 35.

With that protocol observed, let’s bite into it, shall we?

So Khama Billiat is getting the stick across the Limpopo for apparently failing to deliver the performances that the ABSA Premiership’s highest paid player should provide for Kaizer Chiefs.

Billiat’s stats do not make positive reading — 13 league games played this term and only one goal and an assist to show for it.

Certainly, that is not the Gaucho we know.

They call him Khamaldinho on these pages which, in itself, is a testimony of how highly they rank him because, once you have that “dinho’’ suffix, in this game, it represents a lot more.

Ronaldinho, Ronaldo de Assisi Moreira, simply known as Ronaldinho Gaucho, is a Brazilian superstar as good as any of the best who have played this game.

Well, the statistics this season do not represent the Billiat who forced Kaizer Chiefs to pull all the stops — including sending Bobby Motaung to Harare to meet the midfielder’s family — just to prize him away from Mamelodi Sundowns.

At his flying best, the authoritative football website www.tranfermarkt.com <http://www.tranfermarkt.com> valued Billiat at £2 million.

That was in January 2019.

But now those guys reckon the 29-year-old Zimbabwean talisman is worth around £1,5 million.

Injuries, and a seemingly fractured relationship with Chiefs coach Ernst Middendorp, seem to have taken the wind off Billiat’s sails.

And the criticism has been scathing, unfair even.

The media and pundits across the Limpopo accuse our Golden Boy of being only interested in the big pay cheque he picks at Amakhosi at the end of the month, instead of powering the Soweto giants to glory.

These guys struggle to understand how Billiat can be so brilliant in the Warriors gold, but yet abysmal in the yellow of the Amakhosi.

That Khama is Zimbabwean has made him easy prey for vicious analysts who view everything through nationalistic (read xenophobic) eyes.

So, amid the criticism Billiat is getting, former Warriors team manager Wellington Mpandare feels the Zimbabwean media should be at the forefront of defending the football star.

“I believe he deserves to be supported by our Zimbabwean media because he is a key member of the Warriors and has demonstrated, now and again, that he can deliver for his country,’’ Mpandare told the biggest daily newspaper on these isles.

“He has been outstanding for us in all the qualifiers for the last two AFCON tournaments we have played, he scored the only goal we got in Egypt and played at a very high level.

“He wasn’t even 100 percent fit when he took the risk to play for us in that decisive World Cup qualifier against Somalia in September last year because he knew that our future in the tournament was at stake and he needed to help his country’s cause.

“There are few footballers in Africa who have done so much, for their countries, in the past few years like Khama and that’s why I think he deserves support from our local media.’’

Mpandare makes sense, he hits the right notes, sounding all patriotic.

However, the former Warriors team manager does not highlight to Zimbabwe that the relationship between the local media and Khama Billiat is broken.

It has always been a frosty affair, but in Egypt during last year’s Africa Cup of Nations, it hit a new low.

Khama granted interviews to South African journalists, but flatly refused to entertain his countrymen and women.

“No, I don’t talk to Zimbabwean journalists,” Billiat said as Mpandare and ZIFA communications manager Xolisani ‘Homologate’ Gwesela desperately tried to have him have a change of heart.

“These guys write all sorts of things about me and it puts me in trouble with my parents back home. No, I will not talk to them. They can write whatever they want but I will not talk to them.

“I don’t care anymore.”

That snub, by Khama, hurt the Zimbabwean media and we made it known to the Warriors team management.

My brother from the Chronicle, Sikhumbuzo Moyo, said to me: “Mako Gold this boy will need us one day. These Mzansi guys will not always be in his corner.”

Fast forward to a year later, yes, Khama needs us, needs our support, according to Mpandare.

While I hold no brief for local football journalists — being young and running another path different to football reporting with Zimpapers TV — I somehow believe that I capture their collective feeling when I say — “we got you Khama.’’

We might have issues to address internally, but when they hit one of our own unfairly they are hitting us unfairly too.

Show them what you are worth Gaucho and we will back you to the hilt. If they take you to hell, we will go with you!