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THE GEM CAPS COULD HAVE LOST…Former CAPS United skipper Joe “Kode” Mugabe, pictured here in England, says he came very, very close to crossing the Great Divide.

Robson Sharuko Senior Sports Editor
MEMORY MUCHERAHOWA has sensationally claimed that the Glamour Boys are the “Special, Chosen and Anointed Ones,’’ — describing Dynamos as an exclusive club hand-picked by the football gods to rule over the domestic landscape forever.

The former DeMbare skipper, who won six league titles at the country’s biggest and most successful football club and led them to their only appearance in the CAF Champions League final, says CAPS United and Highlanders — their biggest rivals — are mere pretenders and mocks the Green Machine fans as a “Vicious, Annoying and Noisy Lot.’’

“Dynamos FC’s fixtures against either Highlanders FC or CAPS United were matches everyone in the soccer fraternity — from the fans and administrators — always looked forward to,’’ Mucherahowa says in his explosive autobiography, “Soul Of Seven Million Dreams,” written in conjunction with Zimbabwean sports journalist Albert Marufu.

‘’When the gods of football in any nation play the nearest pretenders to the crown, it is obviously an interesting affair no doubt and so it was with both Highlanders and CAPS United when they climbed to the Mount Olympus of football to face their gods — Dynamos.’’

Astonishingly, his CAPS United rival Joe Mugabe has revealed, for the first time, how he came agonisingly close to joining the Glamour Boys in 1995, in what would have been a landmark defection that could have changed the history of the domestic Premiership.

Mucherahowa spent 18 years at DeMbare, including 14 years as either the team captain or vice-captain, and has used the wealth of his experience in those brutal trenches to provide a graphic illustration of the intensity of the rivalry that exists between the capital’s two biggest football clubs.

Mucherahowa reserved an entire chapter, in his book, for CAPS United, especially their Class of ’96, which not only won the Green Machine’s first league title after independence, but also ensured that he would not enjoy the bragging rights of leading his Glamour Boys to four straight league titles between 1994 and 1997.

The former DeMbare skipper reveals that:

l Stewart Murisa and Alois Bunjira “were a spiritedly gifted demonic menace upfront that season with Mugabe providing the leadership in the middle of the mark . . . their acquiring of Bunjira, Murisa and (Edelbert) Dinha was a statement of intent we should have taken heed off.’’

l He had a lot of respect for the Green Machine gaffer Steve “The Dude” Kwashi, whom he describes as “an experienced, really good coach (who) was a football genius who knew how to get the best out of his players (who) when he smelt blood he pounced.’’

‘’Our fight with Blackpool FC in the previous season was interesting but Blackpool did not have as many supporters as CAPS United to annoy us every time we found ourselves on the back foot in the ding dong race to the title,’’ Mucherahowa writes in his book.

‘’CAPS United had vicious, annoying and noisy supporters whom one could not help but notice — ubiquitous and loud they were (and) suddenly they started coming up in numbers to fill up Rufaro Stadium when their matches used to be good enough for the smaller Gwanzura Stadium.

‘’Harare is not a nice city to be when CAPS United are winning and sitting on top of the log standings.

‘’We started taking notice of them but we could not keep up with them. In the end they beat us by three points to win the championship. They also won the BP Cup to add to the Charity Shield and the Independence Cup they had already bagged.

‘’It was a nightmare having the team, nicknamed ‘Makepekepe’ winning. They were now even known as ‘Makepekepe Shaisa Mufaro,’ those that deprive opponents of happiness and joy and they had done so both on the pitch with their chivalrous team as well as off the field with their raucous blaring fans. It was really a painful season for us as we only won the Castle Cup.

‘’However, in 1997 we did our homework. We talked about it as players that there was no way CAPS United were going to win the championship again. We knew how humiliating it was going to be for our fans if CAPS United were to defend the title.

‘’We swore that hell had to freeze over first before CAPS United were to defend the title successfully. We were DeMbare. The Chosen Team. The Special Ones. Anointed by the gods of football to reign supreme over other mortal teams that made the numbers in the Zimbabwean Premier Football League.

“In the end, we were too good that season to the extent of winning the league by a massive 11 points ahead of the second-placed CAPS United.”

Interestingly, Mugabe — who played a very influential role in helping CAPS United end 17 years of waiting for a league title when they were crowned champions in 1996 — reveals in the same book that he could have been lost to the Green Machine just a year before they reached the Promised Land.

“To the CAPS United family, Dynamos FC was the ultimate enemy and losing to them was not acceptable at all,’’ Mugabe says in the same book.

“There is no other player in the eyes of the CAPS United fans who personified the rivalry between the two teams than Memory Mucherahowa. Being the captain of CAPS United — the ultimate enemy in the eyes of Dynamos FC fans — I was the embodiment of what CAPS United stood for.

“Likewise, Mucherahowa was equally hated and respected in equal measure by CAPS United fans. However, as players, we were very close. He was the first person I contacted when I intended to join Dynamos in 1995. I was having problems at CAPS United.

“CAPS United had just changed an executive with Shepherd Bwanya and Wellington Dangarembizi coming in. I was not sure of my position within the club. Besides, I wanted to play in the CAF Champions League. I talked to Mucherahowa with the view of joining Dynamos FC.

“Mucherahowa was very positive about the move. I was supposed to join the club at the same time with Lloyd Mutasa, but the Sifelani-executive was not professional enough to offer me a contract.

“They just wanted me to play and this is something that I had never wanted during my career. I always wanted something in writing, I explained this to Mucherahowa and ended up extending my contract at CAPS United.

“Though the deal failed to materialise, I have no regrets that I did not join Dynamos because we ended up winning the Championship in 1996 and also played in the CAF Champions League. During the Champions League games, I always consulted Mucherahowa because of the experience he had with Dynamos.’’

Tomorrow, Mucherahowa runs the rule on Sunday Chidzambwa, what an explosive analysis, don’t miss your copy of The Saturday Herald.