OVIDY IS FLOATING LIKE A BUTTERFLY AND STINGING LIKE A RAGING BEE File Picture

Sharuko on Saturday
THE cover photo on Ovidy Karuru’s Facebook page isn’t about him being presented with one of the numerous man-of-the-match awards he has won at the 2017 COSAFA Castle Cup where his Warriors’ second coming has been as explosive as it has been very, very beautiful.

Neither is it an image plucked from the five years he spent in French football, where he played for two clubs, after arriving in Europe in 2009 as a fresh-faced footballer who had just waved goodbye to the innocence of his teenage adventure.

It’s not even an image from the time he spent at English Premiership side Newcastle United on the previous year where he had the chance to be up-close-and-personal with illustrious company that included the likes of Michael Owen, Obafemi Martins, Kevin Nolan, Joey Barton, James Milner and Fraser Foster.

Neither is it an image from his other time as the star of the Warriors, being mobbed by scores of delirious fans and getting a standing ovation from a Rufaro packed to capacity after a starring show against Mali in a 2012 Nations Cup qualifier, including a late burst into the West Africans’ penalty area, in time added on, to win a penalty that Knowledge Musona converted for the winner.

Instead Ovidy’s Facebook cover photo is one he uploaded on July 20, 2014, an image captured as he trooped off the field at the National Sports Stadium a month earlier, with both his hands behind the back of his head, a part of his Warriors jersey in his mouth, the disappointment written all over his face a public advertisement of the turmoil that was tormenting his soul.

To his left is a well-built man, probably a security aide, providing a hand of support as if to steady this broken footballer, as if to help him stay on his feet, as if to help him walk away from this field of shattered dreams, from the darkness of this nightmare that had cast its spell all over the place the Warriors call their home, their fortress.

In the background, there is a group of photographers, all of them with their cameras hanging from their hands, their gloomy faces betraying the pain they, too, are feeling as they troop off the pitch, every face telling its unique story of the emotions that were exploding in their souls that afternoon.

That just three years earlier, most of those photographers, who now appeared as if they were ignoring Karuru as he trooped off the field, had jostled to just try and get the best possible shot of the midfielder as he was being mobbed by scores of fans thrilled by his vintage show against Mali on that June 5, 2011 afternoon at Rufaro, spoke volumes.

And in their collective silence this time around, as clearly depicted in that iconic image that Karuru has chosen as his Facebook page cover photo, the photographers were saying it best by simply saying nothing at all.

For Karuru, that’s the grim image, taken on June 1, 2014, just after the Warriors crashed out of the preliminary round of the 2015 AFCON finals following a 2-2 home draw against Tanzania that was at best an insult to their pedigree and at worst an aberration, which he has chosen, in the last three years, to be the cover photo of his Facebook page.

For it to provide him with a timeless reminder that nothing can be taken for granted in this game which recently had paraded its full brutality for him as he spectacularly plunged from being a golden Warrior to one whose glitter had apparently faded and whose time, it appeared, had passed. A timeless reminder of the brutality of a game that can give so much, and take away so much very quickly, and the enduring pain it can inflict on guys like him in times when they fail to live up to the expectations of a people, a nation, which would have invested so much of its trust on them to succeed on the football field.

A timeless reminder of a place and time he doesn’t want to go back to, if given another chance to represent his country in this game, as if to tell us that I was there, experienced all that pain when it all exploded in our face and, just like you, was tormented by the events of that afternoon and it’s not something I want be involved in again as long as I can play this game.

A PICTURE TELLS A THOUSAND WORDS . . .

FEEL IT, IT’S PAINFUL . . . The image which Ovidy Karuru has used as his Facebook cover photo to remind him about the pain that comes with failure when playing for the Warriors and also inspire him to try and ensure he won’t suffer like that again

FEEL IT, IT’S PAINFUL . . . The image which Ovidy Karuru has used as his Facebook cover photo to remind him about the pain that comes with failure when playing for the Warriors and also inspire him to try and ensure he won’t suffer like that again

As if he has been yearning, all along, for a comeback to make up for that mess, a still image pregnant with meaning, full of melody, producing a sound and the more you look at that image the more it appears to sing to us.

Like it’s some cover version of the late great American singer Luther Vandross in his classic hit song “Dance With My Father,” and appears to be saying, “if I could get another chance, another walk, another dance with the Warriors, my feet would play a song that would never, ever end, how I would love to dance with my Warriors again.”

And, that cry for another dance, another chance, was first given to him last month by a coach, Norman Mapeza, under whose tutelage he has bloomed the brightest in the Warriors colours with Karuru’s 88th minute introduction in that 2019 AFCON qualifier against Liberia sparking an explosion of love from the fans at the National Sports Stadium.

A COMEBACK CERTAINLY MADE IN HEAVEN

Fittingly, it had to be Sunday Chidzambwa, the coach who gave him his first extended dance with the Warriors back in 2009 at the inaugural CHAN final, who had to give him another extended run in the colours of his country at this COSAFA Castle Cup. Sport is loaded with a number of stunning comebacks by athletes, who have risen from the depths of despair to take their place back at the top, none better than Michael Jordan who, tormented by the loss of his murdered father, walked away from basketball in 1993 when he was the NBA’s ultimate superstar.

Of course, I’m not suggesting Karuru comes anywhere near MJ, who in my little book was probably not only the greatest basketballer of all-time, but maybe, the finest sportsman the world has ever seen.

But such is the beauty of sport it presents us with room for imagination — no matter how ridiculous this might appear — and didn’t the Zambians even file a complaint with FIFA that it was wrong to claim Messi had scored the most number of goals in a calendar when their own Godfrey “Ucar” Chitalu had scored more even when the levels of competitions were clearly as different as day and night?

And, watching Ovidy Karuru explode, the way he has done at a COSAFA tournament where his magic has provided not only the illumination, but cast a spell over everyone else, has been quite a refreshing experience for someone like me who always believed this guy is a very good footballer.

Since watching him play at his first major tournament for the Warriors at the 2009 CHAN tournament in Côte d’Ivoire, just a month after his 20th birthday, I got this feeling I had just seen someone who would play an influential role for our national team.

That he was quickly whisked away to France, just after that tourney, didn’t surprise me because I was certain there was something special about this fresh-faced footballer with a cultured touch, superb movement, fine vision and, crucially, the ability to score goals.

Neither was I surprised to see him coming back home to play that starring role for the Warriors in that 2012 AFCON qualifying campaign in which we would have grabbed a ticket to the finals had it not been for the madness of a ZIFA leadership that sabotaged it with an ill-advised decision to try and impose Tom Saintfiet into the coaching structures.

Of course, somewhere along the line, Karuru lost his way and his decision to abandon a European adventure, lured by the comforts of the fast life of Johannesburg, the good company of a number of his Warriors teammates, fine climatic conditions where the sun shone most of the year and the convenience of being just a one-and-half flight from home was as ill-advised as it was destructive.

It stalled his progress and, inevitably, damaged his confidence, playing in an obscure league where putting the ball through the legs of an opponent is considered a highlight that will get repeated showing on SuperSport 4 and SuperSport Blitz, where shibobo and all that stuff is given more value than the purity of positional discipline and the religious importance of maintaining great fitness levels.

A league where Zambian forward Collins Mbesuma could become its superstar while being clearly overweight, part of it the result of days spent downing beers without anyone telling him he had to fight to remain in an athletic shape, with his weight issues — more than anything — destroying his dream move to Portsmouth. Someone who had scored 35 goals for Kaizer Chiefs and won the South African Footballer of the Season award could only make just four substitute appearances at Portsmouth before the club, which had first given him a three-year contract, dumped him.

“Let’s be honest, we’ve made some cock-ups,” Peter Storrie, who was the then Portsmouth chief executive, conceded.

“We’ve bought some good players, but we’ve also bought some bad ones. Laurent Robert, Kostas Chailkias, Collins Mbesuma and Zvonimir Vukic were all bad buys.

“Collins, for instance, is a nice lad, but he’s not right for this level. The leap from South African football was too great.”

THANKS OVIDY FOR PROVING WE WEREN’T MAD TO KEEP BELIEVING IN YOU

For some of us, watching Karuru make the best of his second chance with the Warriors, has been quite a spectacle.

He has answered those who questioned his fitness levels, running more kilometres at this tournament than any other player.

He has answered those who questioned whether he was still good enough to play at a high level, the deft touches to control the ball, deceptive body swerves and that ability to not only provide supplementary personnel in the box for the team’s attack, but crucially, to score some cracking goals, speaking volumes about his qualities.

Don’t tell me that the opposition has been poor because when you volley home a beauty like the one that Karuru scored against Swaziland, who had some players who beat Guinea home and away in the last AFCON qualifiers, the opposition doesn’t matter in the final analysis.

It’s the player’s ability to complete the execution of such a lovely goal, with all the high degree of difficulty that such a play has, which is what matters and illustrates the difference between the good ones and the average ones.

When Cristiano Ronaldo stays behind after the Real Madrid practice session to perfect free-kicks, there won’t be any quality opposition to provide a wall that he must beat to get his angles right and score.

They even use dummies that don’t move and what matters, for Cristiano is not what the opposition will do, but how he is perfecting the art of finding the angles he wants from those dead balls.

It’s refreshing to see this diamond, whose sparkle had faded in a mist of the doubts that had started to creep into his mind about whether he was truly good enough, getting his confidence back.

I know there will be bricks thrown towards me, lots of them, from critics who will tell you again and again, there goes this madman, scavenging for light in an irrelevant football tournament where other countries, notably South Africa, don’t even send their home-based players to compete there.

Of course, I understand that and I respect their arguments that it is wrong to use a tournament like COSAFA to judge a player like Karuru given at this tournament he is playing against virtually amateurs and, in such a scenario, his performance ends up being magnified not because he is that good, but because the opponents are that poor.

A football version of a one-eyed man, cast among the blind, who suddenly becomes the king of the kraal.

I understand their reservations that the same Karuru failed to make an impression at Kaizer Chiefs, when matched against players of a better quality, and neither did he send the South African Division One into explosion last season when he played for Amazulu.

But, I am guided by my instincts and, after all, wasn’t Diego Costa rejected by three of the biggest clubs in Brazil — Palmeiras, Santos and Corinthians — because they thought he wasn’t good enough and the rest, as they say, is history?

Wasn’t Antoine Griezmann rejected by every club where he tried his luck in his native France because they argued he was either too small or too lightweight only for him to succeed in Spain, wasn’t Javier Zanetti, who became a legend at Inter Milan, rejected by Argentine club Independiente?

And didn’t Metz turn down the chance to sign Michel Platini, when he was 16, only for him to join Nancy before establishing himself as one of the finest footballers ever to play this game?

Yes, Ovidy, form is temporary, but class is permanent and you just have to admire this guy’s defiance even when everything looked very bleak after being dumped by Chiefs last year.

“To all Amakhosi supporters thank you for the support you gave me for the past two years though I didn’t get a chance to prove myself, but thank you for the messages of encouragement that you been sending,” he wrote on his Facebook page.

“May God bless you all and to Zimbabweans who have been following my progress sorry for letting you all down, but I promise you (that) come next season, wherever I will go, I WILL PLAY AND I WILL PERFORM, so those who know me and who have seen me play before, please JUDGE me next season. GOD BLESS YOU ALL.”

God bless you too boy and, thanks for using that moment of despair against Tanzania to inspire you and, hopefully, after tomorrow, you can change your cover photo and use one where you would be holding the COSAFA Cup in triumph.

To God Be The Glory

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

Khamaldinhoooooooooooooo!

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