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Robson Sharuko Senior Sports Editor
TODAY it’s Nigeria and tomorrow it’s Egypt – it never gets any easier for the Warriors in their mission to transform themselves into a formidable football force on the continent.
The forthcoming AFCON finals is set to provide a barometer of how far they have travelled.
And, as Sunday Chidzambwa and his men plunge into an international friendly against the Super Eagles in Asaba today, which will provide us with a better picture of their state of health, and competitiveness, they can do well to borrow some lessons from a rousing speech recently made by one of their all-time greats.
Madinda — the oldest of the famous Ndlovu brothers who include the late Adam and the irreplaceable Peter — had a lengthy career in the colours of the Warriors and finally retired after featuring for the Dream Team in the ’90s.
Recently, Madinda spoke to the Zimbabwe Legends blog in what was virtually a celebration of his 40 years in the trenches of top-flight football which started when he started featuring for the Highlanders’ senior team in 1979.
And, his story, had a number of lessons which the Warriors Class of 2019 could use in their mission to try and flex their muscles when they take on the heavyweights of African football, starting with their high-profile international friendly against the Super Eagles today.
“It’s always any player’s wish to put on the national jersey,” Madinda, who is now the coach of the domestic Premiership’s oldest club, Highlanders, said in that interview whose video is now on YouTube.
“I’m blessed that I had to witness both the first national team after Independence and also the generation that was coming to play after them and so forth.
“When we started off in 1980 after Independence, I started with the Under-20 (team) with the likes of Stanley Ndunduma, Sebastian Chikwature, all these players, and then we graduated into the national team, then, which was being coached by John Rugg.
“Gibson Homela, Sunday Marimo, you know, and we took over as Young Warriors, actually, the word, Warriors, comes after the Young Warriors had already been popular and those Young Warriors were during our time.
“It was so amazing, it was so exciting to be part and parcel of the national team, be it at Under-20 or at the national team, when you are fresh from gaining Independence, when you play for the nation, in front of that huge crowd, you feel like you are at war.’’
Madinda still remembers when it all started.
“I would like to talk about the ones (games) I would never forget because of situations,” he said.
“We were playing the Zambian national team at Rufaro Stadium and you know, as youngsters coming into the national team, Sunday was the captain by then, Oliver Kateya, they were accepting us as youngsters, saying these are small boys coming into the national team.
“So, Sunday, would get our boots before the game in camp wozora zora mafuta enguruve (rub the boots with pig oil), we were youngsters, we didn’t know what it meant, for us it was good just to play football.
“There you are, I was given an opportunity to play on the right wing there, got the ball down the line, do my usual thing, tora munhu, rarisa munhu pasi (take on the man, send him sprawling on the ground) and then the guy slide tackles me and I fall right on top of him.
“You know what he said, he said, ‘you, you smell like a pig,’ and I said hey, mind your business. That game, really, we drew that game with the Zambian national team but it’s one of the games that excited me because it was a new experience.”
And, when the Dream Team came along, and the ageless Madinda was still good enough to play for the Warriors, he picked the match against the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon at the National Sports Stadium which the Warriors won 1-0.
The match had been staggering towards a draw, which would have served the Indomitable Lions better, until Fabisch decided to throw in Madinda who played a big part in the goal, scored by Agent Sawu, in the final minutes of the encounter.
“I think the memorable games that will never go away are most of the games we played under Fabisch,” said Madinda.
“He was a very, very serious mentor you know, he was more committed than some of the players who were playing.
“I remember a game we played against Cameroon at the National Sports Stadium when I came in as a substitute, we beat Cameroon by a solitary goal.
“That made me feel so special, coming from the bench and turning the game around, it’s a game I will always remember.”
Madinda also revealed that, as brothers, they never played for Highlanders in a game but they only started doing so when they met in the colours of their country.
“We were blessed at Highlanders, it’s not the Ndlovu brothers who started playing at Highlanders,” he said.
“As you recall, the Mloyi brothers, Douglas and his brother, the Mabaleka brothers, Tymon and Phineas, then the Ndlovu brothers, of course, we became three, the rest were like two, two, two, of course, the Soma brothers as well.
“It has always been a brotherly kind of thing at Highlanders, so amazing, so amazing how we got to play in one team together, the three of us, it was not at Highlanders, we never played the three of us in one team, we started to play, as the three of us in one team, at the national team. When I left in ’85, if I’m not mistaken, peter was not a big name, I left him not playing for the first team, Adam was playing but it didn’t take long, when I was in Germany, that Peter started to play , that was the start of writing the history book for the Ndlovus.”
Online Reporter