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Charles Mabika Special Correspondent
FOOTBALL fans all over the world love to hear their favourite players being referred to by their nicknames.
And at most times, they are the ones who “christen” those players with those nicknames.
Since the emergence of the local game around the 1900s, the nickname craze has always been vibrant and it spread at the onset of competitive top-flight football in 1962 and onwards.
But a couple of years after the turn of the millennium, the “nicknames well” seems to have dried up.
What could be the reason?
In the years gone by, if one tuned in to a football game on radio or television or was reading a preview or review in any local paper, the players’ first names would be their nicknames as they were being described by the journalists who also played a part in coining nicknames.
For example, a match featuring giants Dynamos and Highlanders in the 1980s/90s era, both sets of players would all bear well-known and recognisable nicknames that you didn’t have to ask twice if only a nickname was used to refer to a player.
The DeMbare line-up (including the substitutes) would read something like this: Peter “Chops” Fanwell, Angirayi “Durawall” Chapo, Stanley “Samora” Chirambadare, Henry “Beefy” Chari, Edward “Major Murefu” Muchongwe, David “Yogi” Mandigora, Biggie “Bindura” Zuze, Elvis “Chuchu” Chiweshe, Tauya “Flying Doctor” Murehwa, Moses “Razorman” Chunga, Kembo “KayCee” Chunga, Edward “Madhobha” Katsvere, Garikayi “Bindura Part 2” Zuze, Gift “Ghetto” Mpariwa, Vitalis “Digital” Takawira and Claudius “Hokoyo” Zviripayi.
Bosso would line up as follows: Peter “Captain Oxo” Nkomo, Mercedes “Rambo” Sibanda, “Netsai “Super Netsai” Moyo, Alexander “Cool Ruler” Maseko, Dumisani “Doctor Savimbi” Nyoni, Douglas “British” Mloyi, Fanuel “Launcher” Ncube, Cleopas “Dhilodhilo” Dlodlo, Abraham “Fanta” Mbambo, Lazarus “Lulu” Mwambopo, Makheyi “Ninja” Nyathi, Willard “MaWii” Mashinkila-Khumalo, Titus “Zee The Yellowman” Majola, Mark “Lord Soames” Watson, Madinda “Khathazile” Ndlovu, Adam “Adamski” Ndlovu, Peter “Nsukuzonke” Ndlovu, Thabani “Miss Malaika” Masawi and Dumisani “Chimbi Chimbi” Ngulube.
All the other top-flight squads would have players that every fan would be familiar with.
Nowadays, there are only a handful of nicknames within our local Premiership sides that players themselves have resorted to giving each other nicknames that they only they can recognise.
Football research analyst, Lawrence “Lorexh” Maphosa thinks the current players are not good enough to earn popular nicknames from fans.
“In the past, a player would earn a nickname because of a particular and special attribute. For example, the late Bosso defender, Fanuel Ncube, earned his nickname because he was the one who initiated most of the team’s attacks through long and intelligent balls that he used to launch from the heart of defence hence the nickname ‘Launcher’’’, he revealed.
“If you look at our current players from all Premiership teams, how many possess special attributes that will be evidenced by fans and journalists alike for them to come up with a fitting nickname? Maybe one or two players, but in the years gone by, the whole team, including the substitutes, would be aptly nicknamed because of those individual qualities,” claimed Maphosa.
Perhaps one of the most fitting nicknames ever conjured was that of the late Zimbabwe legend, George Shaya, widely regarded as the finest player ever produced in the local game.
The pint-sized wing genius got his nickname — “The Mastermind” — from the late Herald Sports Editor, Alan Hlatywayo, because the latter reckoned that Shaya possessed an extra human brain trait — termed the “sixth sense” — as a result of his uncanny ability to outfox the opposition and produce unbelievable and miraculous moves and finishes.
Hlatywayo, a Dynamos founder member, also had a nickname — “Teacher” — coined by the team’s fans because that was his profession at Mbare’s Nharira Primary School whilst featuring for DeMbare as their right winger before he was lured by the leading publication to become a sportswriter.
Now-defunct Gweru United staunch fan, Maurice “Drogba” Rutsito, feels that the never-ending squabbles at club and national level has turned the focus away from fans following the exploits of their favourite players so that they can study their ways of playing in order to come up with proper and fitting nicknames.
“In the years gone by, boardroom feuds were minimal and we would just talk about the actual game and our football icons. But look at the scenario now . . . We just hear of club and national association officials involved in never-ending squabbles. For the past two decades or more, the perennial problems at ZIFA have been hogging the limelight such that fans have just got fed up and stopped going to watch the game after it resumed owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“So how can we concentrate on watching our favourite teams and come up with proper nicknames?” he queried.
It wasn’t out of place to listen to a radio or television commentator describing action on the pitch like this: “Makepekepe start a move from the back with Bhonzo who pushes it (the ball) forward to Lodza who wiggles his way past his marker before threading it through to Zola who in turn finds Shutto whose effort is smothered by Chauya Chikwata’s ‘keeper, Lazy Mzo. He quickly throws the ball forward to midfielder Gidiza who sends a defence-splitting pass onto the path of on-rushing forward Ajira…”
And both teams’ supporters would know each player’s nickname as they followed the game excitedly.
That’s why football fans just love to refer to their heroes by their nicknames.
Online Reporter