The Sunday News
THIS week we continue with the story of Majuta Mpofu, the “flawed” football genius who mesmerised opponents with close ball control, good dribbling and ball juggling skills coined from the streets of Bulawayo.
He represented a true Bulawayo youth who had gone through Youth Club grooming as he was also good in other sporting codes but was better in boxing and soccer.
Many will remember his exhibition fight at Barbourfields Stadium with then African and Zimbabwe heavyweight boxing champion Kilimanjaro in the mid-1980s.
Mpofu spent most of his childhood and early adult life in Njube and Iminyela where he was part of a generation, that created the foundation for Bulawayo Wanderers later to be known as Eagles, a team that played flowing football “Samba style”.
Even off-form Mpofu would still have something for the fans to chuckle and talk about after the match.
Many followed in his type of play at Eagles, players like Peter Sakala, Collet Dube, Tanny Banda and the legendary Boy Ndlovu were regarded among the country’s best footballers ever.
Banda, whose combination with Madinda Ndlovu when he moved to Highlanders is something to savour for decades said: “Majuta Mpofu was a man who did have different skills compared to other players. He was given the nickname ‘Dribbling Wizard’ by the supporters and for sure he deserved it.”
Banda, like many youths who were in their teens in the late 1970s and fond of the game, Mpofu had an impact on him.
He later played under Mpofu when he moved from Monarch to Wanderers.
“It was great to have such a coach,” said Banda who flourished under Mpofu as he was allowed to dribble as much as he wanted and even at Bosso he was given the freedom to subtract defenders with his dribbling.
Boy Ndlovu who coincidentally played for Wanderers and Highlanders as well and was a wing master winning the 1993 league, an overdue medal for a man who gave Zimbabwe football the best entertainment in 14 years of topflight league football, said he learnt a lot from the legend.
“I learnt a lot from Majuta. He taught me so many things. He told me that when you beat a man ensure he does not catch you, dribble to eliminate opponents, not for fun,” said the man’s fan called the Menace, a protégé of Mpofu who was capped at Under-20 and the senior national team and made appearances on the Soccer Star of the Year calendar alongside legends like Japhet Mparutsa, Madinda, Oliver Kateya, Stanford “Stix” Mtizwa and Moses Chunga.
Boy said Mpofu was true African talent without dilution.
“He was a gem, pure undiluted African talent who made the ball do what he wanted it to do. Nowadays it is as if players are taught to be made to do things vice versa, as a player, you must be in control of the ball. Make it do what you want and Majuta always emphasised on that. He gave me confidence and I am eternally grateful,” said the 1993 league championship winner with Highlanders.
Boy said Majuta always said every player must believe in what he was doing on the field and played each one of them on their strengths.
One of the most skilful defenders to emerge from Bulawayo and play for Eagles, Black Rhinos, Highlanders and Shushine, Itai “Stango” Masawi says it was Mpofu who threw him to the deep end of football.
“He is the coach who threw me into the deep end and he encouraged me not to change anything about my skilful play. He used to like my skill of scooping the ball over charging strikers and every time I was being pressed by opponents he would shout ‘styler’ meaning I have to do my skill to get out of the tight situation.
“So that’s how the nickname Stango came about, most of our opponents knew that if they hear ‘Styler’ I would do my trick. So one of my former teammates the late Cleopas Dlodlo would instead of saying ‘styler’ he would say Stango to deceive the opponents. Majuta even gave me the captain’s armband when we played Highlanders in a Zifa Cup quarter-final in 1991. At that time some of the Highlanders stars, the likes of Willard Khumalo, Madinda Ndlovu and Tito Paketh were playing in Germany but they would turn out for Highlanders whenever they were here. So he tasked me to mark Madinda Ndlovu during a time he was at his very best. I played as a left wing back in that game and when Madinda switched flanks, Majuta asked me to also switch flanks and I played the rest of the match as a right wingback. And apparently after that game that’s when I was approached by the then Highlanders team manager Lawrence Phiri and that’s how I moved to the black and white army.
“Majuta had his style of play that every team player had to be skilful and he was also a very good tactician. On top of everything Jujuju was also a disciplinarian and no player liked standing next to him.
We all knew that if he asked you to come to him he would make a punchbag out of you. One thing that I liked about him is that he was not that kind of coach who would make you run without the ball,” said Masawi.
Hwange and Botswana football legend Fabian Zulu, who watched Mpofu during the Rhodesia National Football League, Southern Region, National Professional Soccer League and the start of Super League, the predecessor of the Premiership, described him as a great player.
He enjoyed the duels he had with his home town stars Austin Ncube and Amos Rendo at Hwange.
“It was very interesting duels but he had difficult times with Amos Rendo because he was a steady defender with good timing so he would slip off using speed and tricks because Rendo was slow. With our other home team defender, Austin had speed but lacked timing so they made sure they covered each other because as he was, Majuta was slippery with quick feet. It was so interesting to watch the stocky striker torment defenders,” said Zulu from Gaborone.
Billy Sibanda who was at Highlanders when Mpofu arrived in 1975 described him as the team’s talisman, a player who would make things happen despite not training with the team.
“We relied on him especially his dribbling skills, he was very skilful, he could lift the spirit of the team when he was around,” said Sibanda.
Sibanda, who played several positions and had challenges with training too when he became a train driver, said Mpofu would dampen the spirits of the team at times by coming without football boots.
“With about 10 to 20 minutes before kickoff, when we are convinced he is not coming for the game, he would pitch without football boots, and management would run around and ask from B Team players,” said Sibanda confirming what was said by Douglas Mloyi last week.
Highlanders’ goalscoring sensation of 1986-88 Tobias Mudyambanje described Mpofu as a natural talent.
“Majuta had what we call natural talent, dribbling was in him and he needed no training. He was a raw talent, second to none and also full of jokes,” said Mudyambanje who watched the legend in full flight from the mid- 1970s to early 1980s.
Charles Ndebele, Black Rhinos’ founding goalkeeper said about Mpofu: “I say in Zimbabwe there will never be a player to come that close to him. He was the only one so gifted. He would not run away with the ball, he would group defenders and dribble past all of them. I have seen dribblers but none of them have been close to Mpofu.”
Charles Mabika, Zimbabwe’s most popular soccer commentator on radio and television over the past four decades also heaped praises on the legend.
“Although I started watching Majuta ‘Jujuju’ Mpofu while at primary school age, before I really got to know and understand the game, he instantly caught my attention when he was starring for Highlanders down the left wing.
“His masterly control as he shielded the ball from opponents was enunciated by an inimitable dribbling wizardry that left his markers sprawled on the turf. Out of his generation, in terms of trickery down the wing he could only be equalled by the late Dynamos magician George ‘Mastermind’ Shaya. Jujuju was a gentle giant on and off the pitch, a shy genius who up to this day I can adamantly claim is the finest left winger ever produced at Bosso, and oh yes, he could score goals of sublime quality after waltzing past defenders to deftly pick his spot,” said Mabika.
