Mkhokheli Dube: From football star to coach

MKHOKHELI Dube, the former Bantu Rovers, Chicken Inn, Highlanders and FC Platinum forward will always be remembered as a serial league championship winner with medals for Zimbabwe sides and one in the United States.

This week Sunday News Life features Dube who talks about his football career. He now owns and runs Zebra Revolution a team with so much promise plying its trade in the Zifa Southern Region Division One League where in its debut season it has given a fair account of itself on the field of play.

Career Highlights

Debut match against Chapungu in 2000

“It was my first game for Highlanders. Zenzo Moyo and Joel Luphahla had just left for Cyprus. Among the strikers was Thabani Masawi, I remember Joe Kabemba from Zambia who came in briefly towards the end of the season. I came off the bench and scored, we must have won that game 3-1.

Like every youth growing in Bulawayo back then, I also wanted to play for Highlanders and to get the opportunity to later on score was a life time feeling for me. I still feel the pride of that afternoon.”

Winning the full 2001 season

“In 2000 I was still a rookie, we won the championship but I had less time in the team having gone through the juniors from whom I was promoted into the first team in 1999 under Rahman Gumbo. When we won the 2001 championship I was very happy as I finished as the club’s top goalscorer. I felt that 2001 was better because I contributed significantly as a first-team player several goals towards the league and cup double.”

Scoring against Esperance in 2003

“It is every player’s dream to play continental football. My first bite was with Highlanders when we faced Esperance in 2003 at Barbourfields Stadium. What is still in my mind and is often a reference point is the goal I scored in the 1-1 draw in the first leg of the second round. Scoring against that team that had Jiad, a tall defender at the heart of defence after out jumping him, and the very next transfer window he is taken by Bolton Wanderers in the English Premiership, was something else.”

Barbourfields Stadium

Winning the MLS and Mexico Cup

“Another big achievement that I hold high is when I broke into the Major League Soccer (MLS) with New England Revolution in the US after some years of decent performances in college football in the US. Breaking through to professional football was a great achievement given I had played for Highlanders and national junior teams and then moved to play college football. But being part of the top four teams in the US MLS, qualifying for the tournament pitting as many clubs from Mexico, and winning the US$1 million tournament is among my career highlights. It is something to savour for life.”

Returning home to win three league titles with FC Platinum

“It will always be a part of me that after a great stay in the MLS I returned home and was part of FC Platinum history. I won three championships with the lads and I really enjoyed my stay and contribution to the club and Zimbabwe football while with them. They were a fantastic club and the lads, a great team. Before I left I had won championships with Highlanders a personal triumph and achievement for a club I always wanted to play for when I was growing up.”

Playing for Highlanders in his last year

“Returning to where it all started. It started at Highlanders and it ended right there where it all begun. I am happy that before I retired I had an opportunity to play for my club, it will always have a special place in my heart, I was born in it and it felt so great to wind down my career there.”
About football career

“It was a blessing to have the career I had. To have played for a club like Highlanders, gone on to get an education scholarship through football, graduate and play in the MLS and win silverware, get to play for AmaZulu a club with some good history entrenched in it in South Africa soccer. My return playing for more local clubs and achieving what I did made me the person and personality I am today. I am grateful to the game and everyone who worked hard to make me the person who achieved what I did and who I am today.”

Most difficult opponents

Mkhokheli Dube

“I had an opportunity to play against some of the toughest defenders in Herbert Dick and David Mkandawire of AmaZulu. I had a chance to play against them in the Zifa Cup in 2001, I had the taste of tough tackling. They were big, fast, good on both air and ground. Dynamos’ Lenny Gwata being from Bulawayo was like a brother and knew me very well but his combination with James Matola was also a tough one to break.

“But in South Africa, I talk of Siyabonga Sangweni of Orlando Pirates, he was even tough on the tackle, he would not give a striker breathing space.

“Yaa there were others here and there that I found hard to beat but the five I mentioned were something else in my honest view.”

Most potent partnerships

“I enjoyed playing alongside the late Adam Ndlovu and Stewart Murisa. They had played in a number of clubs and outside the country and were nearing retirement. They did not behave like youngsters still seeking glory, they had already won things and were rubbing off what they had learnt. I benefited from their benevolence on the pitch and off field, they were great mentors and I got to be a better player.

“I think when I returned from abroad I was able to mentor Tendai Ndoro at Chicken Inn. At FC Platinum I worked well with Rodwell Chinyengetere and I was happy to see him make a move to South Africa. Older players are not in competition with younger and ambitious guys but are all there to ensure they develop.

“At Bulawayo City I worked with Mkhululi Moyo and Emmanuel Madiranga. It was good to see them grow as forwards with the little I could share from my exposure.”

What is he up to now

Upon retirement in 2021 Dube got serious with Zebra Revolution a team he registered in the Zifa Bulawayo Province and saw it rise through the ranks to Division One in 2024. He is also the Bulawayo Province board member responsible for development something he is passionate about. He says development is the way to go if football is to reap handsome rewards in the future