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COLLINS Okinyo is a Kenyan sports journalist who is part of a group of about half-a-dozen football writers who run blogs on the SuperSport website.
I’m not a fan of Kenyan football and I don’t watch their Premiership on television and neither do I follow the trials and tribulations of their national team, the Harambee Stars, who have been struggling to find a way back to the Nations Cup finals since 2004.

But I’m aware that a lot of money is being poured into the game in Kenya and that has enabled them to hire Frenchman, Henri Michel, whose coaching career highlight was to guide his country to third place at the ‘86 World Cup in Mexico, as their national team coach.

The Kenyans are ranked 130th in the world by Fifa, way behind us, and none of their clubs have managed to make an impact, in the African Champions League, the way our poorer teams have done, while the Harambee Stars haven’t been to the Nations Cup for eight years.
They have had a lot of in-house fights, which have held back the progress of the game, with Fifa at one stage intervening and suspending the country from the world football family, but they appear to have seen the light now and look ready to walk into a better future.

It’s looking good, too, on the players’ front and on November 7 this year, 21-year-old defensive midfielder, Victor Wanyama, became the first Kenyan to score in the Uefa Champions League by getting one of the two goals that powered Celtic to an historic 2-1 win over Barcelona. Wanyama is the younger brother of another Kenyan international midfielder, McDonald Mariga, who plays for Italian giants, Inter Milan, and has been on the radar of English Premiership moneybags, Manchester City, for some time now.

A lot of the Kenyan Premiership games are on SuperSport but those who have cared to watch tell me it’s a circus — the grounds are in poor shape, the fans usually stay away, the standard displayed on the field will make Karoi United look like Barca, the picture quality is usually poor and the commentary atrocious.
But, with the way things are going in their football, it’s possible a light will shine through all that darkness and Kenyan football will rise again to the levels scaled by the Harambee Stars when the likes of

Wilberforce Mulamba where the main players. Recently, Okinyo was in Zambia and Zimbabwe on working visits.
He covered a league match and the Barclays Cup final in Zambia and was also at Rufaro when the curtain came down on our domestic Premiership with Dynamos lifting the Mbada Diamonds Cup after a Rodreck Mutuma double fired them to League and Cup honours.

Okinyo, just like most journalists, was surprised by the way Chipolopolo rose to take their place among the giants of African football, with that unforgettable success story in Gabon, complete with all the emotional sub-plots that it carried.

But he told his readers last month, following his visit to Zambia, that the Copper Bullets’ victory in Gabon was not a fluke.
“First of all, it’s important to give credit where it is due by congratulating the Football Association of Zambia, under the leadership of Kalusha Bwalya, for the great job they are doing in managing the beautiful game in the country,” Okinyo wrote on his blog.

“I was fascinated to see the level of organisation and seriousness in the local league and realised that to build a good football foundation one needs the structures.
“Zambia are lucky to have a man like Kalusha Bwalya at the helm. Some people might reason that a good footballer does not necessarily make a good manager. I think Kalusha has killed this myth, as he has emerged on top of the game and set the pace for other former great footballers to emulate.

“I was excited to take note that youth structures, which are an integral part in building a formidable national team, were in place.
“Kalusha Bwalya’s leadership is what many of the African football leaders should look up to and try to emulate.”

Will We Get Our Kalusha?
That Kalusha is doing even better, for his country, as an administrator than what he did as a player when he led Chipolopolo on the field as the team captain and talisman, is not even questionable.
He was excellent as a player, no doubt about that, but just like the great Godfrey “Ucar” Chitalu, Kalusha didn’t deliver the Nations Cup to Zambia and, like Chitalu in ‘74, he could only get a silver medal in Tunisia in ‘94.

Sadly, Chitalu perished in that plane crash, off the coast of Gabon, in ‘93, when he was now the Chipolopolo coach and didn’t live to see his national team coming of age, ironically in the same country where that disaster occurred, at the 2012 Nations Cup finals.

It looks like all of Southern Africa now wishes, or is looking for, their own Kalusha, a man who distinguished himself as a player and came back home to serve his country’s football as an administrator and we all know it won’t be an easy search.

But I guess the South Africans look forward to a day when a guy like Lucas Radebe will take over as president of Safa and pluck them from the quagmire of mediocrity where their national game has been trapped since they left Japan and South Korea at the end of their 2002 World Cup adventure.

Radebe’s leadership qualities were good enough to be seen by the establishment of Leeds United Football Club, who made him their captain at a time when the English club was enjoying unprecedented success in Europe, and it’s a surprise he remains on the sidelines of the corridors of power in his country’s football.

In Zimbabwe we have Peter Ndlovu, who spent more than a decade playing football at the very top in England, and while his legendary status, on a global scale, is not at the level as Kalusha, he is well respected across the country.

Peter was recently appointed the coach of the non-existent Under-23 national team, which never kicks any football, and also got a ticket, by virtue of that position, to be an assistant coach of the Warriors.
Interestingly, Kalusha also chose the same route when he returned home, coaching Chipolopolo for some time, but then abandoned it all, after realising he was better off as an administrator than a coach and, as they say, the rest is history. Whether Peter can follow Kalusha’ footsteps isn’t clear yet, especially in a football environment dominated by a shadowy monster called the Zifa Council, whose membership barely changes, over the decades, and poisoned by sharp differences that have split its fertile fields into war zones.

Not that the Zambians are perfect because they even fought Kalusha not so long ago, with a rebel camp challenging his right to be the FAZ president, and it needed the intervention of Fifa, to put their house in order.

But the Zambians have found a way to put the interests of their national game ahead of everything else and it’s not super personalities, which are being created in Zambian football today, but a game that is being oiled, in all departments, so that it can move forward.

In contrast we are still deep in the trenches here, fighting imaginary wars on all fronts, appointing people into key technical positions, in the national teams, not because of the value they will bring to the table but because of they come from our hometown or village or region, whatever the case might be.

The Zifa chief executive, Jonathan Mashingaidze, this week even used the word holocaust, with all the shock and awe it induces, to describe our national game and what it went through before the current board came into office. Well, for those not familiar with holocaust, or shoah in Hebrew, it was the mass murder of about six million Jews during World War II by Nazis and when such terms are used to describe something today, it must be something really grave.

I’m not sure if Peter is the chosen one, to be our Kalusha, but he is not the only one we have, who played football at a high level, who could one day lead our national association and perform the kind of miracles that we have seen coming from our brothers across the Zambezi.

For all the hell that he has suffered, in the last two years, there is no doubt that Norman Mapeza’s magic will shine again in the future and whether that will come in the trenches of coaching, where he has this Midas Touch, or in the boardroom, is another matter altogether.

Desmond Maringwa is making steady progress, using his role as the leader of the Footballers’ Union of Zimbabwe, to develop into an administrator who could one day be trusted to lead Zifa and his case is being helped, to a large extent, by the exposure he is getting at many leadership forums around the world.

Paul Gundani, the secretary-general of FUZ, has also come across as a level-headed individual, with the potential to hold bigger portfolios in the future, including at Zifa, while Alexander “Cool Ruler” Maseko, currently based in South Africa, has always struck me as a potential leader.

The other day Bruce Grobbelaar came out in the Sunday newspapers to say he still had a lot to offer to this country and feels like the nation has turned its back on him and forgotten about its eccentric Jungleman. A lot of our football stars went into the Disapora, at the turn of the millennium, where some had to go to university, to get the necessary qualifications to nail down a job and secure a permit to work and stay, and a host of them have been doing well in their chosen fields.

Wiser and older, these guys appear to have re-invented themselves and you just need to follow their arguments, when they discuss this or that issue in our football on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, to understand that they have a lot of substance now.

Henry “Bully” McKop, Alex “Chola” Chasweka, Japhet “ShortCat” M’parutsa, Karim “Dulys” Abdul, Muzondiwa Mugadza, Charlie White and Innocent Mugabe are some of the regular contributors on the social media debates on football and they offer captivating and mature contributions.

Imagine a guy like Tauya “Flying Doctor” Murewa, with all his knowledge of the game and unquestionable academic excellence, returning home, the way Kalusha did after his playing career was over in Europe, and becoming the Zifa president, wouldn’t that be just what the doctor ordered?
I don’t know if we will ever get our own Kalusha, the chosen one who will lead us to the Promised Land, because I know this system and it’s not a coincidence that it hasn’t produced even one prominent ex-football star, in the past 32 years, to be the leader of our football. In the current Zifa board we have just one prominent ex-player, Benedict Moyo, and he needed a run-off to win his seat, having served four years on the sidelines after being pushed from the game by those who were in charge in 2004.

In the previous Zifa board we had none and it’s the same story with the other boards before.
Meanwhile, the Zambians are marching on and it’s easy to forget that they failed to qualify for the 2004 Nations Cup finals and, at the 2006 Nations Cup finals, they were only good enough for three points — just like us.

Even Blatter Is Backing Ronaldo For Brazil
For a country that perfected the art of playing eye-catching football and turned itself into every neutral’s favourite national team, it’s fair to say that Brazil have under-performed in recent years.
They haven’t won the World Cup since Ronaldo fired home the two goals that powered them to success in South Korea/Japan in the 2002 World Cup final against Germany.

They haven’t had a Fifa World Player of the Year since Kaka won the award in 2007 and, no Brazilian player has made the shortlist of the three players for the Ballon d’Or since then.
When you consider that between 1999 and 2005, Brazilian players won the Fifa World Player of the Year gong four times, then you know something has changed.
Next year, Brazil will host the Fifa Confederations Cup before they bring the big one, the Fifa World Cup, to Rio the following year.

Times have changed and the world no longer loves Brazilian football the way it used to do when magicians like Ronaldinho, Socrates, Zico, Bebeto, Tostao, Rivelino, to name but a few, used to charm their way into the hearts of millions of people.

Brazil have had their fair share of problems with leadership and it was refreshing to hear Fifa president, Sepp Blatter, telling the world last week that he was backing the possible future candidacy of Ronaldo as president of the Brazil Football Confederation (CBF). Well, Ronaldo is a three-time Fifa World Player of the Year and is the brand ambassador for Brazil’s 2014 World Cup organising committee.
“I am always happy when former stars decide to put their time and energy into working towards the development of football off the pitch,” Blatter told journalists during a working visit to Brazil.

“When I last spoke to him he was very happy with the experience of being a part of the World Cup organising committee and it’s a good learning curve for him.”

Lucky guy Ronaldo!
It’s the same guy whose name was tainted by some people in this country who claimed they were shown a video of him receiving money from some Asian betting syndicates for him to feign injury on the eve of the ‘98 World Cup final between Brazil and France.

It’s all written, in black and white, in an official report prepared by our association.

What does Blatter do?
Well, he makes him his chosen candidate to become the next CBF president.

Are There Quotas At The Warriors?
Somehow, whether by default or design, we have parceled out the Warriors’ three key posts — coach and his two assistants — to have, at least, two people who represent Dynamos and Highlanders from their playing past, irrespective of the value they add to the brand.

It was the same in the failed 2013 Nations Cup campaign when we had Rahman and Peter, the ex-Bosso boys, and David Mandigora, representing the DeMbare portfolio.
We have a new set-up now, headed by Klaus Pagels, and King Peter is still in there and Lloyd Mutasa comes in representing the DeMbare fraternity. We have another assistant coach and, predictably, he has to represent a certain big constituency — Ian Gorowa, ex-DeMbare forward.

It’s good to take care of our two biggest football constituencies but that shouldn’t come at a price for quality because the national team should be for the very best, in terms of technical minds, which is available here.

Mutasa has found his way into the Warriors’ set-up, after seducing Pagels with his passing game philosophy and, after his trials and tribulations in Swaziland, where he was facing the axe after picking up 12 points from 10 games, this looks like not only an attractive get-out clause package but also a huge promotion.
He is a good fellow Lloyd and maybe, working in tandem with Peter and under Pagels, they could come up with a coaching Dream Team.

What I’m not sure about is this passing game that Pagels was talking about because, if he wants to impose it, can it be done at senior national team level, where players gather in camp for three or so days, or at Under-17 level, where the players will be learning the ropes?

At what point do we say this is the way we want our football to be played — right at the top where you find the Warriors and Pagels or right at the bottom where you find the Under-14s, Under-16s and guys like Bekhi Nyoni and company who are working with these boys?

Is it possible for guys who have been brought up, playing a certain level during the junior levels, suddenly turn into masters of the passing game now that they have made it into the senior national team and are under the tutelage of Pagels and his men?

At Kiglon, Lloyd found his players who could pass the ball around, without any pressure at all, and he took the majority of them to Dynamos. Against MC Alger at Rufaro, in the first game of their Champions League tie, Mutasa’s passing game project was at its very best and, without any pressure as they romped to a 4-0 lead, they flourished.
But once they had been hammered in Algiers, in controversial fashion, and started dropping points at home, pressure began to build, as it usually does at a big club like Dynamos, and we all know what happened.

The project, inevitably, crumbled and Mutasa had to leave before Callisto Pasuwa picked up the pieces and, even without the passing football, made his players winners again enabling them to win the double that year.

Pagels looks like a good guy and that he loves our football isn’t in question because his frequency at Rufaro, to watch even matches between small teams, was enough proof of his love affair with our national game.

Everyone wishes Pagels well although everyone knows it won’t be easy in those trenches, with all those distractions, and the irony of it all is that our best moments, with a German coach, Reinhard Fabisch, did not come on the back of this passing game.

Back then, in the era of the Dream Team, we defended solidly, with some big and tough men in central defence, we won the battles in midfield, thanks to a tiger called Nkonjera, and we were deadly in attack, thanks to Peter, Adam and Agent.

At times, when the going was tough, and there were many such occasions, we went the direct route — Bruce to Madinda, who had come in as a substitute on the wing, the cross, Agent heading home, 1-0,

Cameroon are beaten in the 90th minute.
Just watch the bedlam in the stands, 60 000 souls exploding in one grand wave of ecstasy at the National Sports Stadium, Fabisch, in his blazer going mad on the track, Agent crying, and we can clearly see the tears from where we are sitting, everyone happy, noone sad.

That was football, as I knew it, not what I see today where the game has been taken away from the fields into the boardroom and where we had fans, thousands of them, we now only have journalists to watch the show at the media conferences.

When Okinyo Came To Harare
Well, Okinyo was here and has written a beautiful story about Zimbabwean football, which is a must-read for everyone the SuperSport website, in which he sees a very bright future for our national game.
“When all is said and done, though, I still see a bright future for Zimbabwe football, which is growing, and is definitely one of the best teams in Africa now,” he writes.

“Zimbabwe football is at a high level and the talent exhibited was the best I have seen in a long time. The exciting Denver Mukamba of Dynamos and Monomotapa’s Ronald Chitiyo made the day.”
Wow!!!

To God Be The Glory!
Come on United!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Chicharitoooooooooooooooooooooooo!
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