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Grace Chingoma Senior Sports Reporter
GILBERT Delicious Mushangazhike is one of the few players to leave the country at a tender age to play in Europe and he credits his father for the influence. His father, Arthur Mushangazhike, is a legend in the domestic game. The striker also boasts being one of the few local strikers to have won the Golden Boot award with different clubs in different foreign leagues.

Yesterday, The Saturday Herald caught up with the former Warriors striker, who is now an assistant coach at ZIFA Northern Region One club Dstv Rangers.

“By the time I started playing soccer in Division One, I had already been to most of the stadiums like Vengere and Colliery with my father when he used to play,” he said.

“As a result, I was no longer intimidated by these grounds and the fans.

“We would also benefit, my brothers and I, when my father did extra training and we would work with him.

“When I was 15-years-old, I was already playing for the Under-17 national team.”

The striker was snapped up by Bundesliga second-tier club Kickers Emden in 1994 following his exploits with the Young Warriors during the Cosafa Cup in Swaziland.

“I remember we had a strong team at the tournament and a team from Germany was there, they got my contacts and later communicated with my club director Lovemore Musindo and I went there for six-month trials before getting a contract,” he said.

When the striker returned from Europe, he briefly played for Blackpool before going to South Africa where he turned out for Manning Rangers before the turn of the millennium.

The former Fire Batteries forward won the Golden Boot twice with Manning Rangers, scoring 29 goals in his first season and 23 in the following year.

Mushangazhike says it was easy for him to win the Golden Boot as he was now playing at a different level from his counterparts in South Africa, having developed his skills in Germany.

But the striker was not finished with the globe-trotting as he packed his bags again, this time heading East to join Chinese side Giangsu Sainty.

“I played in China from 2001 up to 2009. In the first season I was joint top-scorer with a Brazilian player and after playing for three years there, I was made captain,” he said.

Mushangazhike, who was raised in Mbare, said he is now looking forward to his two sons — Basler (16) and Sizzla (8) — following in his footsteps.

Basler is based in South Africa and has been training with Absa Premiership side Amazulu’s juniors and Mushangazhike is confident that after he completes his studies he will become one of the hottest strikers around.

“I believe my sons are talented and I want to raise them the way I was raised by my father,” he said.

“I was born a goal-getter, with football intelligence and techniques, thanks to my father.

“My desire it to set up a project in this country, which will focus on training strikers because it pains me as a footballer that I couldn’t represent my country at a bigger platform like the World Cup and I believe with sharp strikers the country can achieve more.”