The Sunday News
Yester year greats with LovemoreDube
FORMER Black Aces, Highlanders and Zimbabwe Saints utility player Lovejoy Mugadza has named his Rhodesia-Zimbabwe X1 which has a mix of the yesteryear greats and the recent past.
The impressive list has a frontline which has Moses Chunga, Onias Musana and Peter Ndlovu the Great.
Mugadza, who is now resident in the United Kingdom, came up with a list spanning from 1963 to around 2010.
He comes from a football crazy family and at one stage in the early 1970s, his father’s bus used to carry Zimbabwe Saints to matches.
At 55, he has a fair view of Zimbabwe football in the last four-and-a-half decades, 40 years of which he has been a player, coach and fan.
In goal he chose Musa Muzanenhamo who made his mark at Zimbabwe Saints just before Independence. He was part of the club when it made the loudest impression in 1976-77 with several pieces of silverware including the Chibuku Trophy 4-0 win over Highlanders in 1976, the Castle Cup and league title in 1977.
At right-back he chose Mercedes Sibanda, a trusted right-back for many years at Highlanders, Young Warriors and the Warriors. The charismatic Rambo was chosen over a number of right-backs who included James Takavada, Misheck Marimo, Garnett Muchongwe, Angirayi Chapo and Simon “AK” Mugabe.
For the left-back position he opted for former Caps United and Ziscosteel star Ephraim Dzimbiri. A joy to watch in defence and attack, the Zisco wings were a joy to watch with Takavada on the other end with the likes of Clemence Sibanda, Bennedict Moyo and Ephraim Moloi at the centre.
For the centre-backs Mugadza chose Gibson Homela, a former Chikwata and Rhodesia striker who towards his retirement played at the back with Emmanuel Sibanda and Stephen Chuma. Homela’s partner is Ephraim Chawanda, another decorated Warrior who played in Germany and for Orlando Pirates in South Africa.
In midfield Mugadza has William Sibanda anchoring with Ronald Sibanda’s creativity also in the mix. He had room for the Mastermind George Shaya at right-wing with Peter Ndlovu wide on the left.
The lead striker he opted for is the burly former Thekwane, Black Horrors, Zimbabwe Saints, Bata Power and Moroka Swallows and Zimambwe Striker Onias Musana.
His second striker cum midfielder is Moses Chunga who starred for Dynamos, the Warriors and El Aast of Belgium.
Many readers and football fans will be happy that his team has three most talked of Greatest Of All Time (GOAT) Chunga, Ndlovu and Shaya.
It would not be short of creativity and goals with the two Sibandas combining with Chunga and Shaya to carve open lines behind the defenders for Musana Ndlovu to find spaces to nab home.
Criticism however, may come from those that feel Saints dominates. But he can be forgiven in that the players in questions were among the cream during their days.
For instance William and Homela were dominant football forces with the likes of Shaya from the mid-1960s to 1980, while Muzanenhamo was rated among the safest pairs of hands in the last part of the 1970s.
In the mid-1980s for a decade that ends in about 1997, Chawanda was every national team coach’s choice for the centre back position.
Ronald is considered the most creative Zimbabwean midfielder after Black Aces and Dynamos’ wayward star Archieford Chimutanda.
Lovejoy’s X1
Musa Muzanenhamo, Mercedes Sibanda, Ephraim Dzimbiri, Ephraim Chawanda, Gibson Homela, William Sibanda, George Shaya, Ronald Sibanda Onias Musana, Moses Chunga, Peter Ndlovu
