Shutto leaves quietly

shuttoRobson Sharuko Senior Sports Editor
WHEN it finally came, on a chilly Saturday afternoon, there were no fireworks, or even a bouquet of flowers, to mark the end of the road for a footballer whose brilliance turned him into an iconic symbol of excellence at CAPS United before he smashed the barriers to start romantic flings with Dynamos and Highlanders.

Only a group photo where his team, an unfashionable Northern Region Division One team, posed with Walter Magaya, a piece of a cake blessed by the prophet, hugs from his teammates, a group of players that he had coached and played with in his swansong season as a footballer and then quietly going home to consider his future.

How times change.

For this month, 19 years ago, Stewart Murisa was the toast of Zimbabwe football, its latest brightest star who had just been honoured, for his exploits on the field as he helped power CAPS United to their first league title in independent Zimbabwe, by being crowned the Soccer Star of the Year.

When he received the Soccer Star of the Year trophy that November night in 1996, at the age of 23, bringing the house down when he was kissed by his wife on that podium, as the young family celebrated their finest hour, Murisa was on the road to greatness.

A powerful forward, he had first caught the eye in the colours of Darryn T before spending a season at Blackpool in 1995, where he helped the colourful Harare side battle toe-to-toe with Dynamos in a riveting league championship race, where the two rivals ended with the same number of points and the same goal difference, only for the Glamour Boys to win the marathon by virtue of having scored more goals.

But, a year later, in the colours of the Green Machine, Murisa would have his revenge.

Partnering Alois Bunjira, Simon Dambaza, Morgan Nkathazo, Felix Antonio in a frontline backed by an awesome midfield that featured the likes of Farai Mbidzo, so good the fans called him Mr Perfect, the immortal Joe Mugabe and Lloyd Chitembwe, Murisa — nicknamed Shutto by the fans — exploded into a forward who terrorised defences on the domestic front.

And, crucially, he was also a man for the big occasion.

His fierce strike in the BP League Cup semi-final against Dynamos, before a packed Rufaro, in 1996, torched crowd trouble, leading to the abandonment of the epic encounter, before CAPS United recovered from the trauma of those violent disturbances to win the tournament.

They also won the Independence Trophy and the Charity Shield, but it was the league championship that dwarfed everything else, in a landmark season for the Green Machine under the guidance of Steve Kwashi, with Murisa being voted as the stand-out player of that super team.

That honour saw him join a small, but elite club of some of the club’s greatest sons, who had scaled those heights, which included the great Stanley Ndunduma, a winner of the Soccer Star of the Year award while at CAPS United in 1981, goal-scoring king, Shacky Tauro, who won the award in 1979, the first time the Green Machine became champions of this country and George Nechironga who shared the award with the great Peter Ndlovu in 1990.

By the time Murisa won the Soccer Star of the Year award, it was inevitable that he would be on the move to a foreign club, having earlier tried his luck in Poland, before finally joining the Great Trek across the Limpopo to South Africa.

But the same hands of the football gods, which had blessed him so much with a talent that plucked him away from poverty in St Mary’s township of Chitungwiza to a comfortable life in South Africa, were also quick to curse him just when his career appeared set to go onto the next level.

For Murisa suffered a horrible knee injury, which kept him away from the game for almost two years and when he returned home, after two operations, he surprised many by choosing Dynamos — the team which represented the ultimate enemy during his playing days on the domestic scene — as the home where he would undergo his rehabilitation.

And, after recovering, he even signed for the Glamour Boys, at the turn of the millennium, and in his comeback game — after starting as a substitute in a league match against Black Aces, coach Moses Chunga threw him into the fray just after the hour mark with Dynamos trailing their city rivals 1-2.

Four minutes later, Murisa made his mark, for his new paymasters, finding the balance to time his execution perfectly and volleying the ball home to torch wild celebrations at the National Sports Stadium.

And, with the goal, his acceptance by the Glamour Boys family was complete.

He repaid them, for the pain he had inflicted on their souls in that BP League Cup semi-final in 1996, by scoring goals and contributing to Dynamos success in the same tournament that season.

But, the following year, he was gone — after a number of experienced players were kicked out of the club — and joined Highlanders where he made a big impression he attracted interest from South African clubs who had long believed that he was finished.

A return to South Africa soon followed and he played for a number of teams, including Bidvest Wits and coming close to breaking into Cypriot football, before he returned home two years ago.

This year, he was wooed to take a post as an assistant coach, who would double as a player when needed, at Lake Harvest in Division One, and midway through the season, he was promoted to be the head coach.

On Saturday, in his final match as a player, he scored twice as Lake Harvest held former Zimbabwe champions, Gunners, to a 2-2 draw in Harare before announcing that he was calling time on his playing days, at the age of 42.

“I’m done with playing and it was good to score in my last competitive game,” Murisa, who also played for the Young Warriors and the Warriors, told The Herald.

“I’m happy to have managed to keep the team in the league despite all the challenges that we faced.”

His next challenge is to pursue a coaching career and if his achievements in his rookie season at a club that battled financial challenges are anything to go by, he could be a success story.

Murisa might not have gone away under a blaze of publicity, but that won’t take away the fact that he was a genuine football star, one of the best that emerged in the golden ‘90s when the domestic football scene was awash with talent and that he lasted so long, given the injuries he suffered, is testimony of his never-say-die attitude.

A character he will need in abundance when he barks instructions from the bench.

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