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Moise Katumbi

Robson Sharuko Senior Sports Editor—
DAVID SHOKO blasting home a fierce last-gasp goal at Rufaro on September 21, 2008, to power Dynamos to a sensational victory over five-time African champions Zamalek sparking scenes of bedlam inside the stadium, and propelling the Glamour Boys into the semi-finals of the Champions League. Phillip Marufu scoring a memorable brace, a week before Shoko’s Miracle of Rufaro, to inspire DeMbare to a stunning 2-1 away win over Ivorian powerhouse ASEC Mimosas at Abidjan’s Stade Houphouet-Boigny — the setting of the Glamour Boys’ saddest hour 10 years earlier when they fell in a controversial ’98 Champions League final.

Benjamin Marere firing home the solitary goal, and priceless winner, at the Stade Olympique Sousse in Sousse, Tunisia, on April 27, 2008, to hand the then defending African champions Etoile du Sahel their first defeat in their backyard in the Champions League to send shockwaves around the continent.

Daniel Kamunhenga scoring a 90th minute winner at Rufaro on May 3, 2009, to give Monomotapa the second goal they needed, in their 2-0 win over ASEC Mimosas, to dump the Ivorian giants, and former African champions, out of second round of the Champions League on a 2-1 aggregate victory for the modest Harare side.

Norman Maroto getting the only goal at Rufaro on March 20, 2010, to help little Gunners stun the world with a 1-0 win over the then six-time African champions Al Ahly, the CAF Club of the Century, in the first round of the 2010 Champions League.

These matches have always featured prominently, and for a good reason too, whenever local football fans debate which game represents the biggest success story by a Zimbabwean club in the Champions League.

From now onwards, please add CAPS United versus TP Mazembe in March 2017.

And, given the odds that the Green Machine defied to dump the Congolese giants in the final eliminator for a place in the CAF Champions League group stages, it’s maybe even fair to suggest that this was the greatest giant-killing act by a Zimbabwean side in this tournament.

Yes, Gunners’ victory over Al Ahly was historic, but the brave Zimbabweans failed to complete the mission and, in the reverse fixture in Cairo, they were beaten 0-2 to crash out of the Champions League.

DeMbare’s elimination of Etoile du Sahel in 2008 was a remarkable feat, given they beat the then defending African champions and handed them their first defeat in their backyard before a Desmond Maringwa goal in Harare completed the job, but the Tunisian giants have only been continental kings just once.

The Glamour Boys defeated five-time champions Zamalek in that unforgettable match at Rufaro in 2008, but the Egyptian giants were last crowned kings of the continent 15 years ago with their other four titles coming in 1984, 1986, 1993 and 1996 and — by the time they faced DeMbare in that game nine years ago — they were not as strong as they used to be.

In sharp contrast, CAPS United didn’t only find a way to eliminate a giant that has dominated the Champions League, in the past eight years, winning three titles and also adding the CAF Confederation Cup title to their trophy cabinet, but one which remains the only African club to play in the FIFA Club World Cup final in 2010 where they lost to Italian giants Inter Milan.

TP Mazembe are the defending CAF Confederation Cup holders and in their previous battles against Zimbabwean clubs in the Champions League, they hammered Dynamos 4-1 on aggregate and Monomotapa 7-0 on aggregate in the past eight years.

They are more than a football club, clearly a political movement, and have been running on budgets of around $10 million every year since 2009 when they powered to their third Champions League crown, which means that an estimated $90 million has been invested into the project to turn them into the jewel of football on the continent.

Bankrolled by one of the richest men in Africa, Moise Katumbi whose net value is about $100 million, although he is reported to be worth much more, TP Mazembe have a state-of-the-art 20 000-seater modern stadium, which cost $35 million to build, and are the first, if not only, African club to have two private planes, including the customised 140-seater McDonnel Douglas MD-80, which they used for their trip to Harare.

The jet has a 16-seat VIP Lounge and is painted in the club’s black-and-white colours.

“We want to be a bull in African football and to do this we must acquire all necessary means,” Katumbi said when he welcomed the plane.

Mazembe have a huge wage bill of around $5 million a year which goes to players drafted from around the continent and Congolese star Tresor Mputu even turned down a move to Europe because he was happy with the $500 000 a year he was earning at the club.

They even have the capacity to loan players to Belgian top-flight clubs like Standard Liege, who acquired two of the club’s stars recently on loan, while their current team is made up of players from Mali (two), Cote d’Ivoire (two), Zambia (three), Ghana (two), Belgium, Iraq and Niger with their coaches coming from France and Senegal.

Mazembe raided half the Zambian side that won the 2012 Nations Cup finals and are now set to sign the majority of the players who won the African Under-20 AFCON finals for Zambia.

That CAPS United were able to eliminate such a giant probably makes the Green Machine’s story the greatest giant-killing act by a Zimbabwean club in the Champions League.

Now, the challenge is for Makepekepe to go on and try and eclipse the greatest success story ever written by a Zimbabwean club on the continent when Dynamos reached the final of the Champions League in 1998.