The Sunday News
Danisa Masuku
SUCCESS in football is a lot more than having dribbling skills and scoring goals. Players that maintain a lasting legacy do so through discipline and commitment to the game.
This is how Netsai Moyo, Highlanders Football Club, describes his illustrious career as a player and team manager of repute. It is no fluke that fans called him “Super” — aptly taken from his fabulous and inch perfect passes that he unlocks in the field of play. Super was a utility player as he was slotted in at right back, left back, defensive midfield and as a striker throughout his celebrated 13-year-old football career.
Many who watched Super play in the 1980s will agree that the story of football in Zimbabwe can never be complete without mentioning Moyo.
During his career, he won the Natbrew Castle Cup, BAT Rosebowl, and Chibuku Trophy, among other trophies with Highlanders in the 1980s. He played for the Zimbabwe Under-20 national team in 1984 that fell short of qualifying for the World Cup, falling to Ethiopia in the last hurdle.
The team had the likes of Boy Ndlovu (Eagles), Henry Chari (Dynamos), Peter Fanuel (Acardia United), Henry “Bully” McKop (Zimbabwe Saints), Dumisani Ngulube (Highlanders), Joshua Mhiza, (Dynamos), Kuni Matambanadzo (Tornadoes), Jonah Murewa (Gweru United), the late Mercedes “Rambo” Sibanda (Highlanders) coached by Obadiah “Wasu” Sarupinda assisted by Peter Nyama.
Born 52 years ago in Bulawayo’s Makokoba suburb where he cut his football teeth, Moyo never looked back. Growing up in a suburb that had few opportunities for youngsters, for Moyo, football was the only gateway to success.
As such, doors opened for the young Netsai at the age of 12. This was the start of a career that spanned a decade.
Moyo recalls that Highlanders was the most popular team in the 1980s and every youngster in the city wanted to play for the team. He joined Highlanders’ Under-12 juniors in 1976 while he was also playing at Lotshe Primary school.
“I started playing football for Highlanders Juniors when I was 12 years old and it was just a pastime. But, before I knew it, it became a passion and I ended up taking it seriously.”
“At Lotshe Primary School I played from the toddlers to the juniors, intermediate and senior team and like any boy in Makokoba at the time, playing football was all we wanted.
“One day when I accompanied my friend called Jacob Ncube who was training with Highlanders Under-12 team. The coach was Ali Baba and as fate will have it the team had not enough players on the day and he said I should join in.
After playing Ali Baba said I should come back and that’s where my career started,” said Moyo, who started as a striker and was converted into a left back.
“This is where one of my teammates Roy Phiri who discovered Benjani Mwaruwari called me Super Nets. It was later shortened to Super by other players and then it was adopted by the supporters.”
He also played for Under-14, 16 and the famous Under-18 which was given a moniker name —Liverpool FC, taking cue from the English premiership side that was doing well at the time.
The Under-18 side was given that name because they played quality soccer and were hardly beaten. It had the likes of the late Willard “Nduna” Khumalo, Bongani Xaba, Saul Ndlovu, Abraham Ndlovu, Oliver Ncube, Abraham Senda, his brother the late Hagai Moyo and Sama Ncube.
He broke into Highlanders first team when he was doing ordinary level at Mzilikazi High School in 1982.
“I was lucky because Augustine Lunga who was a right back was about to retire and as a result I became a direct replacement. He was very instrumental in me getting the position as he told the coaches that I was the one to fill it. I fitted well into the Highlanders machine that had the likes of the late Titus Majola, Peter “Oxo” Nkomo, Alexander “Cool Ruler” Maseko,” he said.
It was easy for him, he says, to attend training sessions at Highlanders because of the chief executive officer for Highlanders Ndumiso Gumede who was a teacher at Mzilikazi High school then, and also in administration at Highlanders.
“It was not difficult for me to attend training sessions because Gumede was a Mathematics teacher at school and also Highlanders club chairman. So he used to talk to my class teacher to allow me to go for training especially when school lessons clashed with training.”
Moyo said in 1983, when Highlanders employed Bobby Clark as coach, the team was introduced to a new playing philosophy.
He said it was Clark who changed his type of play and made him a player of repute.
“Football became interesting. We had a very sharp strike force in the likes Nhamo Shambira and Mark Watson who used to score goals at free will,” said Moyo.
“The coach employed a 4-3-3 formation, as a result we became a force to reckon with. We went for about eight games without a defeat.”
While he was at the peak of his game he suffered a knee injury when they were playing Hwange. As a result he had to be ruled out of the play for the entire season.
He bounced back in 1984 after he had recovered.
“I had to play in the reserve squad for some time and was lucky when I had an Under-20 national team call up. We played Sudan and we won 4-2. I believe I played very well because after that I was selected into Highlanders first team,” he said.
In 1985 Moyo was voted Highlanders Player of the year after winning the Rose bowl cup and the Independence Cup which was sponsored by Rothmans. This was the same time he bought his house in Bulawayo’s Pelandaba suburb at the age of 21.
“Although the year was one of the most glamorous, I have bitter memories as we lost to Acadia United in the Chibuku Super Cup. I cried after the game. It was a disappointing end to such as good year,” said Moyo.
It seems when he was basking in glory his gods turned against him as he got a knee injury after Bheki Mlotshwa of Dynamos landed on his knee. That incident drove him out of play for the entire season.
But his team went on to clinch a number of cups that included Chibuku Super Cup.
After spending the entire season on the sidelines he bounced back, but now as a striker.
“On realising that most of the strikers had left the coaches decided to convert me into a striker. I played for the whole season while I had a knee cap. At the beginning of 1988 I went for an operation in South Africa,” he recalls and a year later at the age of 25, he married his wife Catherine. The couple has four children and a grandchild.
After being operated on he had to recover and played for Red Seal FC for two seasons. He rejoined Highlanders in 1992 and was returned to his former position left back. But the nagging knee injury forced him to take a break from elite soccer and played social soccer.
But his undying passion to turn out in the professional league compelled him to join a division one outfit — Sunshine FC but they failed to qualify as they lost out to Lancashire steel FC by a point.
The year 1995 marked the end of Moyo’s career as he retired from playing soccer after rejoining his childhood club.
Due to the experience that he gained over a decade as a player he has coached a Division Two outfit Zimbabwe Leopards FC for two seasons. Last year Moyo assumed a managerial position his boyhood club — Highlanders.
But Super has sad memories of his reunion with the team that shot him to stardom.
“My contract with Highlanders ended on a bad note because I felt I was unfairly treated. They terminated my contract basing on the team’s performance of the team while I had nothing to do with the performance of the team but the welfare of the players, “he said.
Moyo works at Grassroots as a Monitoring and Evaluation co-ordinator. He has a Zifa Level Four coaching certificate.
