adminRobson Sharuko Senior Sports Editor
SOMETHING special happened in Bulawayo on Sunday — Prince Dube scored a beauty, the latest goal of his purple patch that could secure him the 2019 Soccer Star of the Year award.
Something didn’t happen in Harare on Sunday — Blessing Sarupinda, the latest offshoot from one of domestic football’s royal families, spurned two glorious chances, in the Derby, to announce his arrival on the big stage.
Two unrelated events, maybe, but both with strong ties to history in the week this country is marking half-a-century since it made its bow in international football, back in 1969, with that World Cup qualifier against Australia.
Prince’s remarkable goal-scoring run has not only lifted a gentle giant from the canvas but taken Highlanders from the depths of relegation trouble into fifth place on the Premiership standings.
Tomorrow, it’s possible the Prince could become the first Bosso player to be voted Soccer Star of the Year since Dazzy Kapenya 17 years ago. If, that happens, it would be a very fitting way to mark 50 years since another Bulawayo boy, Bobby Chalmers, became the first footballer from this country to score a World Cup qualifier goal in 1969.
Chalmers, who now lives in Durban, made history on November 23, 1969, when he scored this country’s first World Cup qualifier goal in the Mozambican capital, Maputo, in a 1-1 draw against Australia.
The replay of this 1970 World Cup qualifier, four days later, ended goalless before the Australians found a way to win the third match 3-1, on November 29.
Again, it was the prolific Chalmers on target for this country.
That national team featured a number of black footballers like Isaac Chieza, Nelson Mapara, Shepherd Murape, Adolf Mutuma and George Shaya.
Chalmers had also featured for this country in that landmark tour match, against English side Leicester City at Queens Sports Club in 1961, where the hosts, for the first time, fielded a black player in their line-up — Obadiah Sarupinda. The Flying Foxes had the legendary goalkeeper Gordon Banks, whose spectacular save to deny the legendary Pele at the 1970 World Cup is widely celebrated as one of the finest goalkeeping feats in history, in goals for them in that tour match.
The visitors won 4-3 with Tommy Ballantyne scoring a hattrick for the hosts.
“Many years later, Ballantyne read an interview with Banks in Shoot, Banks having become the kind of player that he now read about in the imported magazine that drifted down to Bulawayo a week or two after they were printed in the UK,’’ The Blizzard Football Quarterly reported in December two years ago.
‘’’It was the usual stuff, you know, but I was interested to read his answer when they asked him if he’d ever conceded a hat-trick,’” said Ballantyne.
“He said that as far as he could remember, “no,” he’d never conceded three in a game. I chuckled to myself about it and wrote a letter off to the magazine, pointing out that this wasn’t quite true. Maybe our match didn’t count because it was a friendly but that day in Bulawayo, I definitely scored three.’”
The Swinging Sixties shaped football in this country — from the domestic Premiership having its first league championship race in 1962, won by Bulawayo Rovers, Chalmers scoring the first World Cup qualifying goal in 1969 and, in the same year, Shaya being crowned the first Soccer Star of the Year.
Fifty years later, Prince Dube has thrust himself into a very strong position to win the same award after a very strong performance in the second half of the season.
While his critics can justifiably argue he had a poor first half of the season, the way he has responded in the second half has been simply irresistible and has also earned a place in the Warriors side.
His five goals powered the Warriors into the 2020 CHAN finals while he now features in the national team side in the World Cup and AFCON qualifiers.
On Saturday, Bosso have a chance to win a major silverware — in what has been a stunning transformation which has coincided with the Prince’s goal-scoring spree — when they host Ngezi Platinum in the 2019 Chibuku Super Cup final at Barbourfields.
While the Prince scored again on Sunday, to power Highlanders to a 1-0 win over Manica Diamonds, to take Bosso into the top five, CAPS United midfielder Sarupinda, whose uncle became the first black footballer to play for this country in 1961, fluffed his lines on the big stage. The highly-rated midfielder, on loan from the Aces Youth Soccer Academy, was presented with two great chances to score against the Green Machine’s biggest rivals, Dynamos, but — on both occasions — froze when glory beckoned. Having been introduced as a second half substitute, Sarupinda waltzed past the static DeMbare defence and came face-to-face with the goalkeeper and, rather than chip the ball over Simba Chinani, he tried to dribble him and was blocked by the tackle.
Online Reporter