The Sunday News
Ngqwele Dube, Sports Correspondent
GROWING up in a family of footballers it was inevitable that Mighty Warriors vice-captain Nobuhle Majika would follow in the footsteps of her elder siblings who had already taken up the game.
She went into the game at a time when it was not fashionable for girls to play soccer and had to withstand disapprovals from her father Kenneth, to finally embrace her undying passion.
“Football is my passion and I began playing at a tender age at primary school. My brothers, John, who is now in the United Kingdom and William, who is based in South Africa were already playing soccer and we used to watch them and got inspiration from them,’’ says Majika.
“Although my father initially resisted the idea of a girl playing soccer, he relented and accepted that it was my passion when I was selected for the Zone VI Games’ team in 2008,” she said.
Majika’s other siblings, George and Moses who play for Chicken Inn and Bulawayo Chiefs respectively are true testimony that football runs in the Majika family. Majika said joining the then fledgling Inline Academy in 2008, when she was at Sobukhazi High School, proved the turning point for her career as it gave her good ground in the game largely due to professionalism fronted by one of the founders of the Academy Trust Kwembeya.
Majika, however, said it has not always been a bed of roses in the sport as she has had many detractors who felt it was a waste of time pursuing a career with no tangible rewards. True, many of her peers in Bulawayo gave up the sport altogether for menial jobs in South Africa.
“The journey in football has been tough because I had to withstand being called names and dissuaded from continuing with soccer but my conscious has kept me going and I have always told myself I will never stop playing football,” she said.
The Mighty Warriors centre back says she is glad she kept her hopes alive in the game and believes their qualification for the 2016 Olympics in Rio, Brazil in August and the 2016 Afcon to be hosted by Cameroon are just rewards that has shamed her detractors. She said despite trials and tribulations in women’s soccer resulting in the absence of a truly representative national league, players have refused to be distracted by the boardroom squabbles choosing instead to adequately prepare themselves for national duty. Majika said they encouraged each other to train on their own so as to keep fit and be ready to play for the nation.
“We have always been passionate about the game and as players we have not given up on achieving great things, we kept our belief and ensured we work hard. For me these are just rewards because nothing comes easy, you have to work hard for it.
“It might not have been financially rewarding playing for the national team or the conditions may have not been conducive but I believe these same difficulties spurred us on to the success that we have achieved. Without having experienced these difficulties we might have relaxed but our passion drove us,” she said.
Majika said she still has dreams of earning handsome financial rewards from the game through moving to countries such as South Africa and to Europe and also hopes to see her parents enjoy the fruits of her labour from football soon.
The 25-year-old, who is a professional hairdresser, resides with both her parents in Entumbane suburb, where she grew up. Majika said the Mighty Warriors are looking forward to the Olympics in three months time and is hoping the underdog tag will assist them get the better of their rivals. Zimbabwe are in Group F of the tourney together with Australia, Canada and Germany, who are all in the top 10 of the Fifa World Rankings.
“We will go into Rio as underdogs and this might work to our advantage because the other teams will underestimate us and hopefully we can surprise them. We are going out there to win and nothing else but this is the world stage and we are playing against the best in the world so it won’t be an easy road but we are ready to leave a mark.”
She urged the nation to rally behind the Mighty Warriors as they seek to make history at the Olympics, both through morale and financial support. Majika, who never misses a Premier Soccer League match in Bulawayo, said it was also important that young talent is continually groomed to ensure there were future stars who can take over from them.
Born on 5 September 1991, Majika is still single.
