Online Reporter
AS Highlanders Football Club celebrates its centenary, the debate over the greatest players to wear the famous black-and-white jersey continues.
While the left-back position has not always produced national team regulars, Bosso has been blessed with several outstanding players who excelled in the number three shirt.
Douglas Mloyi, a club legend who started playing for the first team in 1974 and lined up with several generations of exciting and some decent talents who include Boet Van Ays, Ephraim Moloi, Peter Zimuto, Alexander Maseko, MacDonald Silongwe, Shakespear Mabika, Richard Ndlovu, James Nxumalo, Chutika Tembo and Lawrence Ndlovu, rates Dumisani Nyoni and Peter Zimuto as having been the best at Number 3.
“Dumisani Nyoni was a natural left footed player, converted to left back, I rate him as having been the best. He did not have to struggle sending in crosses, swinging them in came in naturally for him,” said Mloyi who was nicknamed British, a dependable and likeable centre back for the club and country.
Next in his packing order is Zimuto who went on to play for the national team.
“Zimuto whom I deputised at some stage, was a right footer who was made to play at left back. He was good as a defender and provided good cover,” said Mloyi.
He said most of the other defenders he got to play with were right footed.
“Netsai Moyo, Fanuel Ncube, played well in the position but they were right backs. So while they defended well, they denied the team crosses and goals as they could not whip in crosses,” said Mloyi.
Mloyi said he did not get to watch long serving left back Edward “Sales House” Dzowa.
“I saw a little bit of him, he was retiring as we were graduating into the first team,” said Mloyi.
Lawrence Phiri a former Highlanders utility player who has been associated with the club from the early days after the 1963 split which gave birth to Cobras, regards Nyoni and Dzowa as having been the best left backs at the club.
“Dzowa and Nyoni were natural left backs whereas Zimuto and Ncube kicked with their right feet, I give Nyoni and Dzowa the nod,” said Phiri who played for, managed and coached Highlanders and remains among the best football and sports business brains around.
Bongani “Mthombeni” Ndebele, a lifelong Bosso supporter who has followed the club from the 1970s, regards Nyoni as the best ever Bosso left back. He also mentioned former Rhodesia defender Zimuto as having been a standout player on the left back position.
Granger Moyo, who started following Highlanders in the early 1970s, puts Zimuto ahead of all the Highlanders left backs.
“He was the best, I place him ahead of Dzowa. I remember him when he was still at Metal Box when they beat Highlanders 4-0 at Luveve Stadium, he would go on the overlap with Oliver Kateya on Number 11 and him on Number 3, he created chances for Chita Antonio,” said Moyo.
Thulani “Harsh Touch” Dube an ever present personality at all Barbourfields Stadium matches in the past decade, has two players in his list.
“Bruce Kangwa at left back was enterprising, he was a delight to watch and played with his all. Gift Lunga (Jnr) is another player who I think deserves mention among Highlanders’ greatest left backs, his blemish being his tackling at times,” said Dube.
Kangwa and Lunga played as strikers before being converted to play at the back and showed their attacking flair whenever they went on the overlap.
Lunga replaced another man who had established himself as a left back at the club, Jones Mulenga who had arrived in 1997 from Arcadia. The Zambian who had also played as a combative anchorman, had a business approach to his game, playing with determination but came short when he had to pump in deliveries into the box for strikers to finish off.
He would, just like the likes of Moyo (Netsayi), Ncube and Zimuto, break the attacking momentum by switching to the right, step back and kick the ball, for a delivery not as on point or delicate as one kicked by the natural left foot.
Kangwa became Lunga’s natural replacement when the latter called it a day over 15 years ago.
Lunga, Dzowa and Nyoni literally made the left back position their own with almost a decade of service.
Kangwa and Lunga were capped at left back for Highlanders and remain the only ones to have donned Warriors colours alongside former Zimbabwe Saints left back Melusi Nkiwane who played in the famous 4-1 win over South Africa.
Highlanders and Zimbabwe football legend Alexander Maseko put his money on Nyoni.
“Dumisani Nyoni is my best left back at Highlanders. His sliding tackles with his left foot, game reading and overlapping were superb, it was great playing alongside such a player. He was very consistent. Yes, Netsai (Moyo) and Fanuel (Ncube) also played at left back in some matches though they were stronger with the right. Netsai could with the left, but not Fanuel. We called him
Launcher, every time, he wanted to cross he would stop the ball take a step or steps back before hitting the ball,” said Maseko.
Former defensive midfielder brought from Mutare United as a striker by the late Rahman Gumbo but converted to anchorman, rates Gift Lunga (Jnr), Melusi Sibanda and Melusi Ndebele as the best leftbacks he played with during the 1998-2002 spell in which the club won four championships.
Smart Moyo, a club goalkeeper on both sides of 1980, has Billy Sibanda as the best of the pre-Independence era, Ncube and Nyoni in the 1980s and 1990s.
Prolific goalscorer of the 1986-1988 era, Tobias Mudyambanje rated Nyoni, Ncube and Moyo highly.
These were the defenders at the club during his era and got to play against them while at Olympics and Zimbabwe Colts before joining Highlanders in April of 1986.
Mubariki Chisoni better known as Mamba, was brilliant in Rahman Gumbo’s 3-5-2, flying down the left wing and feeding then every day wonders in front of goal Thabani Masawi and Zenzo Moyo to finish off.
Highlanders leftbacks of recent years have failed to stamp their authority and assert themselves as regulars in the position.
Highlanders is celebrating 100 years of existence and these are some of the leftbacks that are remembered in the club’s history especially the last 60 years.
In terms of impact and successes, Nyoni has two league championships and Football Association triumphs.
Lunga won four league championships and the 2001 FA Cup while others walked away with nothing at all after seasons with the club.
Dzowa won the club promotion to the elite league in 1970, was on hand in the 1973 famous Chibuku Trophy win over Mhangura.
He was part of the Highlanders team to win the regional league, the first of its type in 1973, before the club was beaten in the play off for the national title by Metal Box who had demolished them 4-0 in the first leg at Luveve.
