ON April 14 this year our Warriors marked a landmark day in their history, the Silver Jubilee of that unforgettable afternoon at the National Sports Stadium, when our favourite football team finally completed their transformation into a box-office attraction for the fans. In the subsequent euphoria created by the Dream Team, when the Warriors routinely attracted a 60 000-capacity crowd at the giant stadium we call our fortress, it’s easy to forget those long, cold and bleak years when our national football team wasn’t a star attraction for the fans.

Those days when, like our counterparts across the Limpopo, who are used to seeing the Soweto Derby between Chiefs and Pirates pulling more than 90 0000 fans while Bafana Bafana struggle to attract a quarter of such a crowd, the battles between our top clubs brought more fans to the stadiums than our national team.

But, for some of us, those days when the Warriors were virtually walking alone, when they were crying out for the support that never used to come in the numbers they wanted, when their international assignments didn’t generate the kind of hysteria we have seen this week, remain vivid in our minds.

Then, one special afternoon, everything changed and April 14, this year, marked the 25th anniversary of that day when our Warriors completed their transformation into this box-office attraction that regularly woos tens of thousands of fans to their home assignments.

The events of that afternoon, in creating the foundation on which the Dream Team would be built and, crucially, establishing a special bond between the Warriors and their fans, making our national team such a star-attraction for their supporters, haven’t been given the credit they thoroughly deserve.

The arrival of Malawi in Harare yesterday, for their latest Nations Cup battle against the Warriors, provides a throwback to the landmark events of that defining afternoon when our national team came of age with a comprehensive 4-0 demolition of the same opponents they face tomorrow.

Some say it was the finest one-and-half hour for Moses Chunga, ironically a man with family ties in Malawi, in a Warriors’ jersey with the then captain, who was based in Belgium at a time when African players in European football were few and far between, turning on a super show for the archives.

Chunga scored one goal, but it was his playmaking artistry, as the creative hub of that team’s impressive performance that afternoon, conducting the orchestra with a blinding show rich in purity that hadn’t been seen from a man in that golden shirt for a long time, which caught the eye.

The Bully, Henry McKop, who would go on to become an integral member of the Dream Team, scored twice that afternoon and it was 3-0 by the 38th minute, while the late Adam Ndlovu was also on target as the Warriors ran riot and doused the Flames.

What hasn’t been given credit, for the transformation of the love affair between the Warriors and their fans, is how the events of that afternoon changed a lot of things and, from attracting an average of 12 000 fans, our national team now attracted a bumper crowd of about 55 000 at the giant stadium that afternoon.

And, in their next Nations Cup assignment — just three months down the line against Congo Brazzaville — more than 60 0000 fans converged at the National Sports Stadium to watch the Warriors and the love affair between the fans, and their team, had been well and truly established.

It’s also a fact that after that the 4-0 destruction of Malawi marked the beginning of an unbeaten run for the Warriors, in the World Cup and Nations Cup qualifiers, stretching two years, 13 big games in which they plunged into battle and came out unscathed, until it was ended by Guinea — the same West Africans who threaten our 2017 Nations Cup ticket — in Conakry on May 2, 1993.

FROM CHUNGA TO NKONJERA, THE SHOW JUST WENT ON

Benjamin Nkonjera’s last goal for the Warriors was in an international friendly match against Malawi, the country which his parents call their home, and where members of his extended family live to this day.

It was on January 24, 1999, and as we burst into celebrations that afternoon, little did we know that this was the parting shot from our midfield tiger, the footballer whose indomitable spirit epitomised the never-say-die attitude of the iconic Dream Team.

Two months later, our baby-faced Warrior, the one with an infectious smile that lit our hearts, a midfield powerhouse whose little frame was powered by the heart of a lion, was gone, dead at a very young age on March 13, 1999.

And, as the captain of that Dream Team, Ephraim Chawanda, later revealed, Nkonjera was the one who Reinhard Fabisch loved the most, the heartbeat of that mean machine the German gaffer had created.

“Although he (Fabisch) was proud and fond of all this players, the one he loved most was Benjamin Nkonjera, both as a footballer and a person,” Chawanda said. “When he first saw him as a young player, he knew straight away he was a great talent and wanted him on his side.”

Today, Nkonjera lies buried at Bulawayo’s Lady Stanley Cemetery alongside some of his fallen Dream Team legends like Willard Mashinkila-Khumalo, Adam Ndlovu and Mercedes “Rambo” Sibanda.

But his indomitable spirit, especially when he wore that gold jersey of his country, lives on and — as the latest generation of Warriors plunge into a big battle tomorrow that could define our quest for a return to the Nations Cup finals after more than a decade — I couldn’t help, but think about Benji.

That Malawi are the opponents made me stagger back into a past when Nkonjera was battling on the frontline, in the football trenches, for the cause of his country, fighting with passion and courage, taking no prisoners in fierce midfield duels, and emerging triumphant.

Nkonjera didn’t play at the Nations Cup finals, with his Dream Team choking under the weight of a nation’s expectations in that game against Zambia at the giant stadium, while their World Cup dreams were destroyed on that uneven playing field in Yaounde where everything, including questionable officiating from referees plucked from hell, was designed to ensure that Cameroon should win.

And the best we can do for his soul, and all those Warriors who fell without gracing the Nations Cup finals, is to complete the journey they couldn’t complete by not only gracing the continent’s biggest football festival, and also ensure that we leave a mark when we compete against Africa’s finest football nations.

When Nkonjera plunged into his final battle against Malawi, and scored the goal that made all the difference, he was only driven by his desire to represent his country with distinction on the football field and that his parents, and some of his family members called the Flames their team, was irrelevant to him

Just like Chunga before him, the fact that his family had ties to Malawi was irrelevant as our midfield superman — one of the finest midfielders to wear our golden shirt — plunged into battles against the Flames and, more often than not, as was the case when he scored his final goal for the Warriors against them, he emerged triumphant.

FROM NKONJERA THE BATON HAS NOW BEEN PASSED TO KHAMA

In the VIP Lounge of The Centurion at Harare Sports Club on Monday night, I joined a number of friends — Obert Masvotore, Cosmas Nyachiya and Godfrey Japajapa — as we watched the live television broadcast of the glitzy South African end-of-season football awards gala.

You have to give it to our southern neighbours, even though they have a national team that torments their soul with Bafana Bafana already out of the running for the 2017 Nations Cup, for the superb way they organise their awards show.

And, three times that night, we leapt out of our seats, as if we were at a stadium celebrating a goal, when the name of Khama Billiat was read out, providing confirmation that our golden boy had conquered the South African Premiership, the latest talent to show our neighbours that there is something special about our football breeding grounds.

Barely 15 hours later, I was at Rufaro to see the fans inside that stadium giving Khama a standing ovation when he arrived, with the friendly international against Uganda having already started, for his latest mission on national duty.

Those fans at Rufaro were simply showing their appreciation that Khama had given their beloved nation a positive story with his genius on the football pitch, that he had gone out there, in a foreign land, and represented their nation with distinction, that he had given millions of other football-playing kids around the country a reason to dream that they can also make it.

That one of them, who had grown up in Mufakose, had at one time dumped football after finding a job in a shop in Harare to sell clothes and supplement the family income, could rise to become this star who would be acknowledged by the whole of South Africa as the best player in that country’s Premiership, was very special for those fans at Rufaro.

People love heroes and that is why Peter Ndlovu will always have a special place in this country because when he was tearing defences apart in England, and delivering for the Warriors, he was representing everyone who calls himself/herself a Zimbabwean.

It was like they had also won that R450 000 jackpot that Khama pocketed that night, such was the happiness among those fans that one of us had conquered South African football, and some of them simply could not resist it and invaded the pitch to mob their hero after that friendly match.

And Khama, who just like Chunga and Nkonjera has family roots in Malawi, can repay those fans — for their support and love — by just playing an inspirational role in dousing these Flames and boosting the cause of the Warriors in their quest for a return to the Nations Cup finals showcase next year.

It’s all they are asking from their football star, a man they are proud to call one of their own, who went to the country my uncle used to call Wenera and held the entire Rainbow Nation spellbound with his silky football skills, whose diminutive frame reminds them of a certain Nkonjera, who used to transform himself into a tiger once he wore that golden shirt.

They saw his tears in Luanda, as he staggered in that darkness of failure after the Angolans had fought back to steal our 2013 Nations Cup ticket and, just Paul Gascoigne’s tears in that ’90 World Cup semi-final against Germany made him a darling of the English football fans, the Zimbabwean fans will never forget the day Khama cried for his nation.

After all, at Rufaro two weeks earlier, Khama had appeared to secure our ticket to the 2013 Nations Cup finals with a vintage performance, in Knowledge Musona’s absence, ripping the Angolans apart with his pace and wizardry as he inspired us to a commanding 3-1 win.

Surely, the fans have been saying all week that if Khama can tomorrow play as well as they know he can, as he has been doing since this campaign started, including a second half show in the reverse fixture in Malawi when he became virtually unplayable, and was duly rewarded with a wonder goal for what proved the winner, then nothing can stop their Warriors tomorrow.

His introduction in the second half of that match against Swaziland changed the game for the Warriors and he created a goal for Dread Costa, with a beauty of a free-kick, and then sealed the scoring with a touch of class, sublime finish and a trademark CR7 celebration routine.

THE MORE THINGS CHANGE, THE MORE THEY STAY THE SAME

For some of us, who still recall those landmark events of ’91 when a Nations Cup duel against Malawi transformed our Warriors, the return of the Flames for tomorrow’s showdown — 25 years down the line — appears like a journey into the past.

Then, just like now, Malawi arrived here after falling at home to our biggest group rivals and while in ’91 they had just lost to Congo Brazzaville 0-1 in Blantyre, this time they are coming from a 1-2 home defeat to Guinea whom we are battling for the ticket to Gabon.

Then, just like now, Malawi were under a local coach, Reuben Malola, who was fired a week after the 0-4 humiliation at the giant stadium.

Then, just like now, there were some internal battles for the control of the country’s biggest football club, Dynamos, with two factions claiming ownership of the Glamour Boys and then, just like now, the big game against Malawi came a week after Highlanders finally ended a poor run by thrashing Kenya’s Gor Mahia 4-0 at Barbourfields in an African Champions Cup tie.

Having gone on a six-game winless run, Bosso found their touch, a week before our game against Malawi, by thrashing the Kenyans with an 18-year-old Peter Ndlovu, who scored twice in that victory, the star of their show.

Last week, an 18-year-old Prince Dube was the star of their show as Bosso finally ended their 10-year wait for a league win over Dynamos, a week before the Warriors take on Malawi.

And then, just like now, the University of Zimbabwe leadership were up in arms with this newspaper for using what the institution termed, in an advert, the use of “a confidential and internal university report for the purpose of generating a newspaper report, a cartoon and an editorial comment using selected aspects of the report without seeking comment or reaction from the University Community itself.”

Back then it was King Peter’s final season at Bosso, winning the Soccer Star of the Year again before his graduation into European football, and even Musona feels this should be Khama’s final season in Mzansi, where he has just won the Footballer of the Season, and he should graduate into European football.

TO GOD BE THE GLORY!

Come on Warriors!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Khamaldinhoooooooooooooooooo!

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