daniel chigunwe
Sharuko on Saturday
THIS year, Liverpool are marking 130 years of their existence, in a journey that has taken them from relative obscurity to the edges of greatness.
I don’t like the Reds, for reasons more obvious than why we have never had a black Pope, but I respect them.
Because, in the proper football context, they are a true representative of everything which makes this game not only beautiful but special.
The Kop at Anfield, probably more than any other stand in a football stadium in the world, represents not only undiluted passion but why fans are the lifeblood of this sport.
The fans of Boca Juniors will certainly cry foul, and for a good reason too, but it’s quite clear that, in full voice, it’s hard to find sights and sounds, our game, which matches the Kop’s choir.
At 130 years, Liverpool are just one year younger than this grand old newspaper, which was established by William Fairbridge, back in 1891.
Back then, it was just a weekly hand-written news sheet before it transformed itself into a printed newspaper in October 1992.
This means that, in October this year, this grand old lady of Zimbabwe’s newspapers will, just like Liverpool, celebrate 130 years of trials, tribulations and triumphs.
They seem to share more than just the year when they became fully operational.
Liverpool have had 21 full-time managers in the past 130 years while The Herald has had 23 full-time Editors in its long history.
This newspaper had just a dozen Editors at Independence, in 1980, with all of them being exclusively white.
Farayi Munyuki was the first black Editor of The Herald in 1981, when he replaced Robin Drew, and ushered in a new era for this publishing beast.
Tommy Sithole, Charles Chikerema, Bornwell Chakaodza, Ray Mungoshi, Pikirayi Deketeke, who is now the Zimpapers CEO, William Chikoto, the Zimpapers Editorial Executive, Innocent Gore, Caesar Zvayi, Joram Nyathi and Hatred Zenenga, followed in Munyuki’s footsteps.
Maybe, this, in a way, explains why Liverpool’s history has a page reserved for an eccentric goalkeeper, Bruce Grobbelaar, from Zimbabwe, who was a big part of their golden era, in the ‘80s.
And, as fate would have it, the first African footballer, to score a hat-trick for a visiting club at Anfield, had to be from Zimbabwe, the great Peter Ndlovu, on March 14, 1995.
It was also the first hat-trick, conceded by Liverpool at Anfield, in the Premiership era.
Everyone in football knows that it’s not an easy place to go and take on the Reds.
Only one other club, Chelsea, have enjoyed a longer unbeaten home run when the Blues went 86 games, without defeat, between March 2004 and October 2008.
Liverpool went 68 games, without tasting defeat at home, between April 2017 and January 2021.
During that memorable run, Lionel Messi and his Barcelona came to Anfield and suffered a four-goal destruction in a Champions League game.
And, this is the same theatre where Peter Ndlovu, still only 22, came and destroyed the Reds with his three-goal one-man demolition job.
It was the first hat-trick by a footballer, representing the away team at Anfield, since Terry Allcock scored three goals for Norwich in a 4-5 defeat for the brave Canaries.
Every year, on March 14, Coventry City remember and celebrate P
’s special Anfield moment as a reminder of an age when the Sky Blues were a major force in the English Premiership.
“His first goal was a poacher’s effort, arriving perfectly at the back post and firing the ball past Liverpool keeper David James,” noted the Sky Blues.
“His second came from the penalty spot after midfielder Mike Marsh was brought down. His last goal was one that earned applause from even the home supporters.
“Picking the ball up from halfway inside Liverpool’s half, he forced his way through the Liverpool defence before unleashing an unstoppable strike into the net at the Kop end.”
In Coventry, they celebrate, each year, because they know it was a very special moment by a very special footballer.
Here in Zimbabwe, the date comes and goes, as if nothing happened, even though it was a very special day for our football, our greatest Warrior and our finest skipper ever.
ISAAC IS ONE OF US, AS SIMPLE AS THAT
No one knows what would have happened to Peter Ndlovu, in terms of career advancement and profile, had Coventry City accepted the offer from Arsenal, for four million pounds, to make him a Gunner.
That offer came after his heroics at Anfield.
With Arsene Wenger arriving at Arsenal in 1996, to start a revolution which changed the Gunners forever, we can only wonder what would have happened to Peter’s career, if he had moved to London.
After all, Wenger was a firm believer in the quality of African footballers.
A quarter-of-a-century since Peter’s magical Anfield fireworks powered his profile to another level, there is another Zimbabwean footballer at Liverpool’s grand fortress, generating a fair amount of his headlines.
His name is Isaac Mabaya.
Of course, he wasn’t born here, he was born in Preston, but that’s just geography and it doesn’t change anything.
It’s like suggesting that Grobbelaar wasn’t Zimbabwean because he happened to be born in the South African coastal city of Durban.
Or that the generation of boys, and girls, who were born in Mozambique and Zambia, products of brave and patriotic parents, who chose to fight, and even die for the freedom of their country, are not Zimbabweans.
It’s like suggesting that isn’t Zimbabwean because he happened to have been born in Lambeth, a borough in South London.
It’s also the borough where Tony Abbott was born, on November 4, 1957, to an Australian mother and a British father.
This is the same man who on September 18, 2013, was sworn in as the 28th Prime Minister of Australia.
For the Aussies, who thrust him into the highest office in their land, it didn’t matter that he had been born in south London.
What mattered, to them, was that he was an Aussie, a citizenship he qualified for by virtue of his mother, and that was good enough for them to invest their trust in him, to be their Prime Minister.
Lambeth is also where Paul Parker, who is Zemura’s manager at Fulham, was also born and, if you are David Bowie fan, the place where music was born.
The problem with us, as a people, is that we tend to complicate simple things, we want to argue that the sky looks green, when it’s quite clear, it looks blue from here on earth.
We seem to hate ourselves, we seem to despise our identity.
To such an extent that there are many Zimbabweans out there who would be at peace with themselves, if they don’t hear any success story with a Zimbabwean touch.
So, when a jewel like Isaac Mabaya emerges on the scene, there is a degree of disappointment, among this group of people.
Why?
Simply because the teenage footballer happens to carry a Zimbabwean name, has a Zimbabwean father and has a Zimbabwean mother.
In their strange and fantasy world, they would rather have preferred Isaac Mabaya to be Zambian or South African.
Why?
Because, in their world, they want to send the message that nothing good comes out of Zimbabwe, and Zemura only made it into the Premiership because he was born in London.
They will tell you Marvelous Nakamba only made it into the Premiership because he is just one of the luckiest footballers who have ever lived.
They will tell you Benjani Mwaruwari was just a bloody lucky bloke, who rode on a wave of fortune, to end up playing the Premiership.
Even to this day, you hear than bombard social media chat platforms with their toxic views that the Undertaker was a footballer who had ZERO talent, who should get into the Guinness Book of Records, as the luckiest footballer in the world.
How does luck power a footballer to lead the English Premiership Golden Boot race, as Benjani did, at one stage of his career, during his time at Portsmouth?
How does luck power a footballer to convince Arsene Wenger that he has talent to such an extent the Frenchman can end up recommending one, as he did in Benjani’s case, to Harry Redknapp?
How does luck power a footballer to convince a coach like Sven Goran Eriksson that he has enough talent to add value at a club like Manchester City, as was the case when the Swede signed Benjani, in 2008?
How does luck power a footballer to enable him to score in his first Manchester Derby, at Old Trafford, of all places, on a special day United were remembering the flowers they lost in that Munich tragedy?
If Benjani wasn’t one of us, you would have heard the same people, who choose with brutal analysis about him, telling you that was an amazing footballer.
A hard-working individual, who destroyed defences with his strength and industry, with so much pace to burn, who was fearless, and was dedicated to his profession.
They would be telling you that lucky footballers don’t end up winning the Footballer of the Season in Supa Diski.
Especially when one, as Benjani was doing when he scooped that gong, was playing for an unfashionable side like Jomo Cosmos.
And, crucially, they will also tell you, when those footballers are foreigners in South Africa, a country where, in its football, bias runs high, when it comes to individual awards.
WHAT A BEAUTIFUL TALE
We are probably the only people in the world who, when one of them, a 17-year-old lad for that matter, breaks into a team like Liverpool, we don’t celebrate that, as a united nation.
The only country in the world where, when such a special thing happens, you still get some negative voices even telling you that they don’t think the teenager will make it in his career.
The only country in the history of humans where, even when a successful coach like Jurgen Klopp invests his trust in one of us, a 17-year-old for that matter, we still get voices wondering whether the German’s judgment is not flawed.
What really made me sick this week was hearing some guys flooding my social media inboxes with messages in which they were already comparing Mabaya to Trent Alexander-Arnold, the regular right-back at Liverpool.
They were all praising Trent, probably not because they like him, but because he appears to provide a huge hurdle, in the path of Mabaya, which will certainly keep our boy on the sidelines.
My response to them was the same — it’s not fair to start comparing Mabaya with a star like Trent when our boy is just starting his journey and the Englishman is now one of the established stars of the game.
I kept telling them that for Mabaya, at the tender age of 17, to earn the trust of a coach like Klopp, is a huge triumph for our boy and that, on its own, is MASSIVE.
For any footballer right now, I reminded them, to make it into training, with the Liverpool first team, is a huge achievement.
For a 17-year-old footballer to earn Klopp’s trust, be taken on a pre-season tour of the Far East and to be thrown into a battle against Manchester United, is a massive achievement.
It’s progress, it’s development, it’s advancement, it’s growth, it’s a major breakthrough, it’s a football graph moving in the right direction.
Recently, the authoritative FourFourTwo magazine published their list of the best 10 right-backs in world football today.
Ageless Brazilian star, Dani Alves, was ranked number 10, Zeki Celik (9), Kieran Trippier (8), Dani Carvajal (7) and Benjamin Pavard (6).
The top five has Reece James (5), Kyle Walker (4), Achraf Hakimi (3) and Joao Cancelo was in second place.
The number one right-back in world football today, according to FourFourTwo, is Trent Alexander-Arnold.
The man with 161 Premiership appearances, 10 goals in the league, 45 assists and 13 268 minutes of action.
The man with 45 Champions League games, one goal, 12 assists in the competition, 3 830 minutes of action for a combined 245 matches, across all platforms, 16 goals and 66 assists.
That’s the man we want to compare with our raw teenager, who is only 17, who is yet to kick a ball in a competitive match, who is just starting his career?
Akomana, tikawana nguva ngatimbotyai Mwari.
It will help you to know that in the 130 years, which Liverpool have been part of world football, only 20 African players have had the privilege of playing for the Reds.
Arthur Riley, a goalkeeper from South Africa, was the first African footballer to play for Liverpool and spent 14 years at the club, as their regular ‘keeper, in the 1920s and 1930s.
Riley made such a huge impact at Liverpool he is ranked the SEVENTH best African player to ever feature for the Reds.
Berry Nieuwenhuys, affectionately known as Nivvy, was also another South African footballer who starred for Liverpool, scoring 74 goals in 239 appearances in 14 years at the club.
Sean Dundee, the South African spent just one season at Liverpool, El Hadji Diouf was also a failure at the Reds, the only striker who spent an entire season without scoring, in the club’s history.
This year marks 20 years since he was signed for a club-record 12 million pounds.
Charles Itandje (Cameroon), Oussama Assaidi (Morocco), Yasser Larouci (Algeria), Nabil El Zhar (Morocco), Salif Diao (Senegal), Victor Moses (Nigeria) Kolo Toure (Cote d’Ivoire), Rigobert Song (Cameroon), Naby Keita (Guinea), Titi Camara (Guinea), Mohamed Sissoko (Mali), Joel Matip (Cameroon) Sadio Mane (Senegal) and Mohamed Salah (Egypt) are the other members of the exclusive club of 20 African players to ever play for Liverpool.
Now, if just 20 African players can break it into the Liverpool team, in 130 years, why is it we seem to have people who don’t seem to understand that just being part of the group, as Isaac Mabaya has done, tells a beautiful story.
A tale of talent and that’s what we should be celebrating because, of the 50 plus countries in Africa, we are the only ones with a teenager training with the Liverpool first team.
To God Be The Glory!
Peace to the GEPA Chief, the Big Fish, George Norton, Daily Service, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and all the Chakariboys still in the struggle.
Come on United!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ronaldoooooooooooooooooooooo!
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