The Sunday News
Allan Foti, Sunday News Correspondent
WITH 15 goals to his name so far this season and two games to go for him and his side, Caps United striker Dominic Chungwa has ignited debate among football circles with the majority beginning to reminisce about the good old days when top strikers consistently scored upwards of 20 goals per season.
The last time a local scored in the 20’s was the era of former Soccer Star of the Year and Njube Sundowns gunman, Evans Chikwaikwai whose 23 goal return in 2008 earned him a move to the cash rich South African Premier League. Historically, Zimbabweans have earned lucrative contracts down south after stellar seasons peppered with goals.
Last season, Leonard Tsipa was the top goal scorer with a paltry 11 goals while the year before that, former Highlanders forward Knox Mutizwa scored 15 goals. In 2014, former Chicken Inn and Orlando Pirates striker, Tendai Ndoro was on target 18 times to land the top goal scorer award.
But it’s Chungwa who has excited football traditionalists with his bustling style that has set the local goal scoring charts on fire. His nearest rivals are Black Rhinos’ Lot Chiwunga (12 goals) and Dynamos’ Christian Ntouba Epoupa (11 goals). With only two games to go, Chungwa looks to fit the golden shoe and dazzle the stage come awards night.
A native of the Colliery town of Hwange, Chungwa’s star has finally begun to shine brightly after years of being a near man, with countless misses taking the shine from his often stunning goals. This season has been his best ever, with the highest return since his premier league debut.
The likes of Ndoro, Zenzo Moyo, Benjani Mwaruwaru, Wilfred Mugeyi, Alois Bunjira, among others earned good contracts after scoring for the hack of it in the premiership. However, in recent years the old school type of striker has been missing from the frontlines. Not too many strikers have the scene alight or even threaten to bust the net like strikers of old.
In Chungwa, the 2017 season finally found a forward supposedly bereft of any skills, with a poor conversion rate, but just about good enough to score 35,71% of his side’s goals this season. Although an acknowledged hard worker and committed footballer, over the years, he has always seemed to fall behind the pecking order at Caps United to the likes of Tsipa.
But in 2017 his head coach Lloyd Chitembwe seems to have finally found the right magic to spark Chungwa.
The nation waits to see if Chungwa has the capacity to continue on this upward trend and become the striker that Zimbabwe has been clamouring for in recent years: a scorer of at least 20 goals per season. @AllanFoti
