admin
Grace Chingoma-Senior Sports Reporter
AS the football family pays tribute to former Mighty Warriors and Black Rhinos Queens star striker Rufaro “Mafidi” Machingura, who passed on on Thursday, many have described her as a talented footballer who never realised her full potential.
The female footballer died at her house in Retreat Park, Waterfalls, on Thursday after a long illness.
She is survived by a baby boy.
Mourners are gathered at number 4617, Retreat Park in Waterfalls.
Her family has since appealed to the football fraternity for assistance to meet funeral expenses. They are hoping to bury her in Harare tomorrow, but are still running around to raise funds for the grave and coffin.
The football family is in mourning and former ZIFA technical advisor and Warriors coach, Klaus Pagels, led the tributes.
Former Zimbabwe Women’s Football League chairperson, Mavis Gumbo, expressed her sadness over the untimely death of Machingura while former Warriors and Mighty Warriors fitness trainer, Gerald Maguranyanga, also paid tribute to the talented, but flawed athlete.
Pagels, who facilitated the Mighty Warriors training camp in Germany in 2011 after the team had won their maiden COSAFA Championship earlier that year, said he was shocked by the news. Machingura was part of the national team that toured Pagels hometown Stade, outside Hamburg, and engaged in matches against lower German Bundesliga sides. “I am shocked. My deepest condolences to the family and all the Mighty Warriors supporters and friends. She was a really good player and a very nice human,” said Pagels.
Machingura made the two-week camp in the European country as she was also the queen of snooker and challenged all the male members of the technical team that included goalkeepers coach Nkululeko Dlamini and assistant coach Ndega Matsika.
The former women’s football boss Gumbo presented a perfect platform for the Mighty Warriors to dare to dream during that good era of women’s football revival.
Although Machingura was not part of the history-making team that went to the Rio Olympics in 2016, she featured in one of the Olympic qualifying matches against Ghana.
“Rufaro was one of the finest players to have donned the Mighty Warriors jersey.
“She symbolised and embodied a true Mighty Warrior spirit, especially through her desire to always win and to see her Zimbabwe team succeed.
“Like many a star player, Rufaro might have had problems with discipline but what one could not take away from her was her talent and an unquestionable desire to win always.
“She also had a never-say-die attitude that had a rub-on effect on her teammates.
“May her family derive solace from the fact that Rufaro has left behind a trail-blazing legacy which is difficult to erase. She will saunter into the beautiful garden where she will continue shining as a star player. Rufaro, famba zvakanaka, hamba kahle, go well,” said Gumbo.
Maguranyanga, who had the opportunity to work with the first generation of the women’s national team players that had Rosemary Mugadza, Nomsa “Boys” Moyo and Sithetheliwe “Kwinji 15” Sibanda before he returned to serve Machingura’s generation that also had Mighty Warriors skipper Emmaculate Msipa and Rudo Neshamba, said Machingura stood out.
“I can easily compare the two generations of players and by a country mile, the now-deceased Rufaro Machingura stood out. As a professional athletic trainer, that comparison for me was easy because the young woman was truly that athletic.
“Athletic trainers love natural-born athletes. It’s easier for a natural-born athlete to perform any hard task unlike the one who is in the game because they loved it and they worked quite hard to make the grade.
“Mafidi (Machingura’s nickname) did not have to work too hard. Her body was naturally proportional. All her levers were in sync and just about the right size and she carried no excess baggage in physical attributes. She was built to be more than just another mother; but to perform beautiful, attractive athletics too.
“In a sprint for the ball, she’d find it easier to stride there first before the opponent. Mafidi was taller than 99% of the girls. That height helps a lot in competitive football if you were a central attacker.
“But as often happened with some geniuses, as Robson Sharuko, the legendary Zimbabwean sports writer likes to remind us from time to time, they often come flawed these geniuses.
“In 2014, Mafidi made headlines at home and abroad after extraordinary, shocking pictures of her emerged. She flew into a mad rage (she often did) at Rufaro Stadium as she played for the army team Black Rhinos Queens and aimed a few perfect karate kicks at the match officials. Wow! It took several strong men to restrain her mad self. In a nutshell, that was the other side of Rufaro Machingura. It was a bad, notorious side. Unpleasant. Uncool. Unsexy.
“Machingura could have gone on to conquer the female football world just judging by her insane potential. Some of her Zimbabwean peers are now playing professional football in Spain, Israel etc.
“I cannot forget the very first day I saw her in action at Rufaro Stadium.
”She displayed fantastic jumping ability, could pack a strong shot left and right; and had the exciting, confident aerial ability.
“But she also found it easy to roughly, illegally shove a competitor. The girl athlete usually is dignified as she goes about her business and will not chat back at the referee or her coach. Not so Mafidi. If she wanted to give you a piece of her mind, she would. Simple.
“I fantasized about the finished product and thought I could give her extra work and help fine-tune her V8 turbocharged engine. It wasn’t easy working with Machingura. She’d be at training one day, fully committed and the very next day she’d be absent and full of excuses. That was the story of her life, the Mbare-raised Mafidi, week by week.
“I did a few international tours with her with the national women’s squad and each time there were always the lovely flashes, the goals, the assists that showed her huge untapped potential. But not even 10% of her vast potential was ever realised. All wasted.
“Like your ultimate flawed geniuses, your Diego Maradona, your Paul Gascoigne, your George Best, your Jabu Pule, etc; Machingura’s life was littered with mischief and the occasional run-in with the law and officialdom; all of which diminishes and minimises an otherwise superb talent.
“The troubled Machingura had eventually descended one-way into the frightening dark world of substance abuse in recent years. And it seems no one could help her anymore. Not even at the tough military Black Rhinos Queens where she played. They cut her loose. The die was cast. Sad,” said Maguranyanga.
Online Reporter