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Tadious Manyepo Sports Reporter
THIRTY years ago, George Nechironga shared the Soccer Star of the Year award with Peter Ndlovu.
That, in a way, tells you how good he was.
He became the second CAPS United player, after Independence, to be crowned the best player on the domestic football scene.
Nicknamed Tyson, he was a bustling forward for the Green Machine and, in the only poll for the Soccer Star of the Year to end in a deadlock, he finished with the same number of votes as the Flying Elephant.
They shared the gong in 1990.
“I know Peter was extremely talented,” he says. “We once played against Highlanders Under-18 side when we were still in the CAPS United junior structures.
“He was just too good.
“I am honoured to have shared the accolade with him.”
Peter is now the team manager at Mamelodi Sundowns, but it appears, life has not been kind to Nechironga.
Maybe, that explains why he was reluctant to even grant us an interview when we arrived at his Glen Norah home yesterday.
“I am used to the South African media. I don’t have any motivation talking to you. I am sorry,” he told us. “What do I gain from granting you an interview?
“At least if you give me some money . . .”
Some money?
Well, the 51-year old dread-locked former Bloemfontein Celtic man was not asking to be paid for the interview, but it’s just an expression pregnant with meaning.
He needs assistance, as we later learnt, and it appears the Green Machine have turned their back on him.
Save for a shiny trophy cabinet, laden with a collection of silverware he won during his career, Nechironga’s home is a family house he helped extend and doesn’t have much to resonate with his fame.
“Footballers are sometimes misquoted and this is why I didn’t want to grant the interview,” he said. “I am not very much at liberty to disclose more about my private life.
“Yes, I played football at a higher level, but that was 30 years ago.
“Mind you, when we played football, we were not earning as much as players get now. There are a lot of factors.
“What I need now is a new life where I can have proper facilities and equipment to run a vibrant junior development structure in my neighbourhood.”
Nechironga returned from South Africa in 2015, upon the expiry of his contract as a development coach for Bloemfontein Celtic.
He has never returned to that country again.
Neither has he been involved in full-time coaching although he is credited with initiating a pilot grassroots programme in Glen Norah, which has produced some players who have moved to Premiership clubs Yadah and Herentals.
He once had a stint with Polish side Sokol Pniewy.
Nechironga stays alone, after the death of his mother in 2015, while his father, Jawett, a league title winner with the history-making St Paul’s Musami in 1966, died two years later.
He has never been married and doesn’t have children.
His brother Francis is in the United Kingdom, together with his sisters, and they combine to make sure Tyson has something on the table for his meals.
But, with the hardships brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, Nechironga is one of the notable victims of the epidemic’s ripple effects.
“For now, with the Covid-19 situation, I really need help. I wouldn’t want to sound so desperate, but I need a hand,” he said.
“I should say football hasn’t given me as much as I have given the sport.”
Nechironga dreams of starting what he terms “football crèches.”
He said once he gets support from colleagues, well-wishers and the local Glen Norah leadership, he will do wonders in terms of development.
After all, he is a development coach, who was involved in nurturing several South African stars like Percy Tau and Thulani Serero.
He once worked with the current Bafana Bafana coach, Molefi Ntseki, and is eager to upgrade the coaching badges he earned from South Africa when the CAF courses return.
Former CAPS United stars Oscar Motsi, Edward Farayi and others also stay in the same Glen Norah neighbourhood with Nechironga and they have their own social football side.
So, where did it go wrong with Nechironga, especially when everything looked so promising for him when he was crowned Soccer Star of the Year in 1990.
Well, the day of his coronation also turned to be the day of his divorce, with the Green Machine, before he returned to the club four years later.
“Up to this day, I am the one who is blamed for what transpired,” he said. “One of the players, after taking one (beer) too many decided to provoke me.
“But everything was taken out of proportion. I can’t mention any names, lest I be misquoted and misinterpreted. Let us leave it like that. But that was to be my last dance in my initial stay with the team.”
For four years, after leaving Makepekepe, he was involved with Darryn T, Bloemfontein Celtic and Sokol Pniewy of Poland, before he bounced back at the Green Machine in 1995.
Tyson followed in the path of the late Shacky Tauro, who had been the first CAPS United to win the award in 1979, and Stanley Nduduma in 1981.
The trio paved the way for the likes of Stewart Murisa, Energy Murambadoro, Cephas Chimedza, Joseph Kamwendo, Hardlife Zvirekwi and Joel Ngodzo, who have been honoured with the Soccer Star of the Year award while playing for the Green Machine.
Yet, Nechironga might never have played for Makepekepe.
Months before the Green Machine came knocking on his door, the powerful forward had signed for State House Tornados.
But, being a mere 16-year old, who had signed without his parents’ consent, CAPS United informed the authorities and were allowed to secure Nechironga, instead.
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