Remembering Reinhard Fabisch

leaving behind just memories for some of us who graced his world.
How is it possible to forget Reinhard Fabisch?

You can possibly see him now, in his famous blue shirt, khaki trousers and a blazer, barking instructions at National Sports Stadium and his Dream Team making all of us believe that we could reach the World Cup.
His legacy lives on in Zimbabwe.

And on the outskirts of the German city of Hamburg, his wife Chawada, a former Zimbabwean athlete, and son Jonah, have found a home.
Jonah turns 10 next Saturday and he believes, one day, he will become a professional player.
The boy wants to play for Germany, his fatherland, but said there was also a possibility he could consider playing for his mother’s country.

Chawada, the daughter of a Mutoko businessman, has settled in Germany after the death of her husband put an end to the globetrotting they used to do when Fabisch was still coaching.
She was always by husband’s side, in the jungles of world football, which saw them settling in Guatemala, Kenya and Benin, long after Fabisch had ended his romance with the Zimbabwean game.
On Wednesday Chawada, with son Jonah by her side, went down the memory lane and talked to The Saturday Herald about the man she loved.

“What I remember the most of the Dream Team in the early nineties is that they seemed to me to have been a cult of some sort that almost everyone wanted to be a part of,” she said.
“And, of course, the leader of this group was a very charismatic man by the name of Reinhard Fabisch who, together with his 22 disciples, had the ability to gather over 50 000 people on a weekend into a stadium and entertain them for 90 minutes.

“Reinhard always told me that it was the best combination of players he ever had as a coach, so that his job was that much easier to do because his task was simply to play a strategic system with highly motivated and talented players.
“And it worked, time and time again. Over 11 matches without a single defeat!

“Although he was proud and fond of all his players, the one he loved most was Benjamin Nkonjera, both as a footballer and a person.
“When he first saw him as a young player he knew straight way he was a great talent and wanted him on his side.”
Fabisch also had great respect for the goalkeeper of that team.

“He was just so happy to have Bruce Grobelaar in goals because he knew the man could spring, leap and dive almost like the speed of lightning,” said Chawada.
“Bruce and him also had a good friendship off the field and maintained the relationship long after he had left the Warriors job.
“Francis (Shonhayi), he thought he was a good captain and a fantastic defensive player.

“But he some times was worried about his weakness for women and I remember laughing when one day he saw Francis talking to me after training at the stadium.
“We were not married at the time so Reinhard did not want anyone spoiling his chances.”
She also spoke about her hubby’s famous trademark – the blue shirt.

“Reinhard had the most unbelievable blue eyes I had ever seen and so blue was his favourite colour.
“Whenever he wore a blue shirt it would capture the sparkle in his eyes and when he smiled it seemed the whole room would light up.
“That is why he loved the blue shirt.

“In addition to that he was also a bit superstitious, and believedthat wearing it brought him luck. And it seemed to have worked for a quite a while. During his third stint in Kenya when Jonah was born he always carried to matches in his briefcase Jonah’s blue and white romper that he wore the day after he was born.

“He thought that, too, brought him luck!
“Life without Fabisch is something that I had never imagined would happen until maybe 20 years from now.”
Chawada revealed they had plans to come back and settle in Zimbabwe.

“I always thought we would eventually settle down in Zimbabwe, run the Reinhard Fabisch School of Football and help underprivileged kids with an outstanding talent in sport lead a more meaningful life,” she said.

“That was the plan we had for a long time.
“We bought land in Ruwa in the late ’90s and it had always been Reinhard’s dream that once he had reached a certain age, where he no longer wanted the pressures involved with being a national team coach, to settle there.

“Now exactly three years after his passing on I am living a whole different life to what I had been used to.”
Life, with Fabisch on her side, was simply good.

“The life of an international coach’s wife for me was very joyous and seemed almost like a long, long vacation to amazing places, some that I had never heard of before I went there,” said Chawada.
“For instance when he got a job in Qatar in 1998, I had no idea where that was, but nonetheless I was willing to go there and discover the Middle East.

“We loved the nomadic lifestyle. We were never more than two years in any country and that has had an effect on me because now I have been in Germany for three years and l am feeling as though it’s time to move to the next destination.

 

“At the moment I am unable to do so because Jonah is now left with one more year of primary school and it would not make sense to move now.
“When Reinhard passed away I thought of going back to Mutoko or Ruwa and start a new life back in the land I call home.

“But, unfortunately, because of the conditions back home in 2008 it was wiser for me to stay in Germany with Jonah and send him to school so he could perfect his German and also learn about European heritage.

“For Jonah it was a lot easier to integrate into the society because he had spoken German with his father from the day he started to speak.”
Chawada struggled with the German language.
“As for myself, I had never thought I would live in Germany so I never made a serious effort to learn the language,” she said.

“So, just basic day to day stuff like trying to tell in thesupermarket which is the washing liquid and which one is fabricsoftener was a challenge.
“My husband could not always help me because the first three months he was in the hospital, fighting a rare form a gallbladder cancer, which the doctors were not certain about how to treat it.
“Now, of course, having taken several months of German classes and the mandatory integration course at the Volks Hoch Schule, I am able to converse at an intermediate level and life is a lot easier than when we first arrived.

“I was even employed some months ago but recently decided to stop working to concentrate more on a passion of mine which is creating garments.”
Chawada remembers the good old days.
“So many times I sit back in awe and think to myself, wow, howblessed I am to have been able to live in so many different places in the world, ranging from Sweden, Kenya, Guatemala, Barbados,Qatar, United States, Dubai, Benin, and now Germany,” she said.

“It is such a blessing to be able to experience, the diverse cultures, the languages and the food.
“Things like the climatic conditions, from being stuck at home for days because of a hurricane, to experiencing earthquakes that cracked the wall of the upstairs’ bedroom being and caught on the highway by a desert storm to walking my son to school in one-metre high snow.
“It just makes me smile to think that I, a girl born far away in the growth point of Mutoko during the liberation struggle, is able to experience things that never crossed my mind when I was a teenage girl

climbing mango trees in our backyard so many years ago.
“Jonah and I miss Reinhard so much and it’s difficult at times to believe that he will never walk in through the door again and carry Jonah in his arms and then straight away find a ball and start showing Jonah tricks with the ball in the living room.

Then, with arms on my waist, he would tell him to go and play outside before he breaks the flower vases.
“It has been difficult for Jonah, but I am so grateful that he is a tough boy and has been able to give me strength to help carry us through the tough times that we had to endure.

“Jonah is in so many ways like his father. Even though he inherited a lot of my features he has his father’s colours – the light cloured hair, the green/blue eyes and the pale complexion are all from his father.

“But the shape of the eyes, the lips and even the teeth formation are truly mine. ‘A child of the sun’ we called him sometimes.”
Her son loves the game that made his father popular.
“Jonah has a passion for football. He was just born that way Ithink. It is in his genes,” she said.

“Reinhard always thought my African flair and my athletic prowess and his German discipline and tactical ability was a perfect combination for the making a future champion.
“He could see that from the age of four or five already and it seems he was not biased in any way.
“In the past month I have had calls from the top two football clubs asking if Jonah would play for their teams because they saw him playing and think he has potential.

“I am sure Reinhard is just as proud of Jonah as l am and l dobelieve that in spirit he is with us and always will be.
“They will play a tournament on his birthday on the 13th of August.
“And he thinks that alone is a perfect present to be able to playfootball all afternoon on your birthday.”

The boy though would love to play for his fatherland one day and will only turn to Zimbabwe if he fails to make the grade for the Germany national team.
Chawada, together with Fabisch’s friends, have decided to carry on with Reinhard’s dream.

In December they launched the project in Harare with a five-member committee of former Germany Ambassador to Zimbabwe Albrech Conze, former Warriors’ stars Peter Ndlovu and Edzai Kasinauyo, and banker Stan Kudenga and Farai Munetsi, being put in place.

And Chawada will be coming back home in December for the first intake next January.
“The architects are busy working on the plan. And by end of year we should have another fundraising. A lot of people have shown interest and I would be coming back in December and should be having first intake in January.

“The kids would be at Price Edward school until the schoolconstruction is complete. A good friend of my husband should be coming with me to conduct trials.
“He has worked extensively in Kenya and Tunisia and is a professional guy with an eye for talent.

“The manager of Hamburger (Bundesliga team) is a very close friend of the family. He once played together with my husband.
“He knows the game here and is willing to introduce us to people. A lot of people want to help but they want the initiative to come from us.

“I strongly believe everyone has to be given a chance to prosper in life.
“I see it in my son. He has the passion and has got all the facilities here to make it. So I only feel for those boys at home and most of them are orphans.

“We can help only a handful, it is a drop in the ocean but I believe it will go a long way.”