Online Reporter
Veronica Gwaze
Zimpapers Sports Hub
WHAT began in March as another Premier Soccer League season filled with rivalry took a different turn last Friday night, but remained true to the game.
By the time Newlands Country Club filled with light, music and quiet laughter, the game that often divides people had softened into something gentler. The room carried a warmth that felt far from the chants and jeers of match day. It was a moment when football seemed to speak with one clear voice.
The usual tension that follows coaches, players and officials around the country had slipped away. Figures who spend the year guarding tactics and territory arrived in tailored suits and elegant dresses. They greeted one another with easy smiles. They lingered by the walkways, sharing small stories.
Months earlier they had pushed each other to the edge of competition, each one wrapped in club colours and the pressure to defend identity. Yet here they were, letting that weight fall from their shoulders for one night.
Throughout the season, the eighteen top-flight clubs had crossed paths mostly as opponents. Each group chased its own targets and lived through its own struggles.
The badge on the chest meant everything. Every match carried its own pulse, its own consequences. Yet all those battles eventually brought them to this one place, this one night, where champions, survivors and even the relegated leaned into the same celebration of the game. The PSL Soccer Stars awards felt like a gathering shaped by gratitude. Speeches rose and faded. Special recognition awards drew long applause. Families, supporters and administrators sat side by side as the league’s best walked the red carpet. The parade of players from across the league carried a message that did not need much explaining. Football unites.
Qadr Amini, the Ngezi Platinum Stars captain and 2023 Soccer Star of the Year, described the weight the moment holds for every professional who dreams of stepping into that hall.
“This is a very prestigious event that every player wishes to one day be part of, there is so much pride in walking down the red carpet, let alone being the season’s poster boy,” he said.
“I have been there before, it is months of hard work which you finally see bearing fruit in a moment and to witness everyone watching and clapping for you means everything.”
Across the room, TelOne skipper Frank Makarati carried memories of his own rise.
He still remembers the noise the room made in 2022 when he was named second runner-up. At that time he led Dynamos and the blend of relief, joy and recognition became a story he keeps close. “That night still plays at the back of my mind, it is a moment that any player would want to relive over and over again,” he said.
“As a player, when the season starts, you set yourself targets and for certain, making it to the Soccer Star of the Year finalists often appears on every player’s list.
“When you then make it, you beam with pride, so as a senior player now, dedication and giving it your all on the pitch for you to make it onto the finalists’ is one of the big messages you preach to your team.
“I am proud that this season, I stand here to clap for one of my mates and player Washington Navaya as we celebrate his big night.”
There were others who came not as finalists but as witnesses to the moment.
ZPC Kariba’s Samuel Makawa stood among them. His face carried the same excitement as those waiting for their names to be called.
“Even without making it to the finalists, being part of the event brings a different feeling, it leaves you motivated to want to do more next season,” he said.
“My dream is to walk down that carpet one day or have one of my mates being crowned, but above everything, the night is meant to unite us and for football to win at the end of the day.” By the time Telone striker Washington Navaya stepped forward as the 2025 Soccer Star of the Year, the room had already lifted him with cheers. The moment sat heavily on him, almost too big to shape into simple words.
“I do not know how best to express what I am feeling presently, it is a moment that I have dreamt of since I became a professional player,” he said. “The dream keeps you motivated to work harder as a player, but honestly I did not realise that it was this big a ceremony until I walked in.
“But the biggest take away is having members from all the eighteen league teams coming together in unity to celebrate.”
The smiles lasted deep into the night.
For a league that spends most of the year pulling in different directions, the evening offered a reminder of something deeper.
Competition may shape the season, but unity shapes the game.
