K for King Cristiano, K for Khama,  K for Kekana, K for Kaizer, K for Master KG FIFTY NOT OUT . . . Kaizer Chiefs have come a long way, since these days when the likes of Doctor Khumalo (standing, fourth from right) were part of their stars but, in their 50 years, it’s unlikely there has been a meltdown, which hurt them, as much as their sensational collapse last weekend

Sharuko On Saturday

ONCE in a while, a song, whose beautiful beat seduces the world, whose powerful message captures the imagination and whose moving lyrics dissolve any human allergy to sound, comes along..

It crashes the language barriers, makes a mockery of regional, and continental divisions, and provides a timely reminder that there is more to what unites us, as a human race, than what divides us.

It turns into some sort of a global anthem, attracting more than a staggering 125 million views on YouTube alone, at the last count.

Let’s try and put that into context.

That’s like having the combined number of all the people, who call themselves South Africans, Zimbabweans, Zambians, Tswana, Namibians, Basotho and Swazi, having viewed that video on YouTube.

It’s like everyone who calls himself an Egyptian, a country which has about 102 million people right now, having a chance to go on YouTube and watch this video.

Those are staggering numbers.

Welcome to “Jerusalema!’’

The musical paradise where a 24-year-old South African singer, working in collaboration with his 26-year-old companion with a golden voice, have taken us with their classic singalong song.

 

Jerusalema, ikhaya lami (Jerusalem is my home)

Ngilondoloze (Guard me), Uhambe nami (Walk with me)

Zungangishiyi lana (Do not leave me here)

 

Ndawo yami ayikho lana (My place is not here)

Mbuso wami awukho lana (My kingdom is not here)

For some, it has been a reminder of the first time they heard the classic song, “I Wanna Hold Your Hand,” way back in 1964.

Its release played a huge part in transforming “The Beatles” from just being a British super band into a truly global musical outfit.

For others, it has provided them with a reminder of the first time they heard John Lennon’s “Imagine,” in 1971 or U2’s “Sunday Bloody Sunday” in 1983.

Like Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” it’s a song that is shaking up the entire global music establishment, conquering virgin territory and becoming the soundtrack of the world.

And, when Michael’s Grammy Award-winning sister, Janet, a member of music royalty, provides a personal endorsement of the song, as she has done with “Jerusalema,’’ you know you are really rocking the globe.

In a world devastated by Covid-19, this up-beat song, with a gospel touch, has single-handedly provided the globe’s tormented soul, with a rhythm to cheer its battered spirits and a light to illuminate the darkness.

It has also provided a rainbow to remind us that every storm hits to pass.

It has inspired the #JerusalemaChallenge dance videos around the world, with different people, in different countries, coming up with their innovative dances.

For me, the best one came from a group of priests and nuns in Italy, complete in traditional Roman Catholic attire, whose performance was really top notch.

To imagine that, just a few months ago, this was the same country, which was being devoured by Covid-19, amid graphic reports coffins awaiting burial were being lined up in churches, as funeral services struggled to cope, was simply amazing.

Italy had been to hell, and back, and to see those priests and nuns, dancing to the “Jersumalema’’ beat, has been one of the refreshing images of a year in which our world changed forever.

In France, frontline health workers, also embraced the challenge, and started posting their videos, dancing to the song, in what has become a global festival of fun.

That the world has been crying out for something, to cheer its shattered spirits, isn’t even in question.

But, that the cheer has been brought by a musician from Limpopo, who went into collaboration with a colleague from KwaZulu Natal, has to be one of the finest stories of the new millennium.

THAT CR7 FAMILY RETREAT, THAT INSTAGRAM VIDEO POST, THOSE RECORDS

You know something big has happened when the same song is used by football superstar, Cristiano Ronaldo, to provide the soundtrack for a video of his family retreat.

Because, when it comes to CR7, everything is huge.

“Life is better with your loved ones,” the Portuguese captain wrote on Instagram, after sharing the video in which he parties with his family, partner Georgina Rodriguez and his friends.

“Enjoy all the moments with love and happiness!”

After another season, in which he added yet a number of records to a career in which he continues to touch the heavens, Ronaldo certainly deserved some priceless time to party with his family and friends.

A few weeks earlier, he had won another league championship in Italy.

On Tuesday, he became the first European footballer, in the history of world football, to score a hundred international goals for his country.

Forty nine of his goals for his country have come in his last 47 games.

There have been 24 braces, in his international career, and that means he has more braces than the goals which any of his current teammates, in the national team, have managed in terms of their number of goals.

He has scored nine hattricks for his country, tying the record for a European player with Sweden’s Sven Rydell, whose goals came from another era — between 1923 and 1932.

At an age, 35, where other footballers would have long slipped into retirement, moved from geography and into history, Ronaldo continues to set the standards.

To put his achievements into proper context, while he was scoring his 100th and 101st international goals on Tuesday night, none of the players who played in that match had more than seven goals, for their countries, to their credit.

His goals for his country (101) are what you get when you combine the goals which Thierry Henry (51) and Robin van Persie (50) scored for France and the Netherlands during their international careers.

Both Henry and van Persie are record goal-scorers for their two countries.

Since turning 30, five years ago, Ronaldo has scored more international goals than Sergio Aguero has managed throughout his career and is the only player to score in four different Euro finals.

Ronaldo is the only footballer to score in 10 consecutive international tournaments, four World Cup finals, four Euro finals, one Nations League and one Confederation Cup.

When he scored twice against Lyon, in the Champions League, he took his season’s tally to 37 goals, a record haul for a player in a single season in the 122-year history of Italian giants, Juventus.

You have to go back to 1926, when Highlanders were established 94 years ago, to find anyone who scored close to that number of goals, for the Old Lady, when Ferenc Hirzer struck 35 times.

Since Arsenal’s Ronnie Rooke scored 33 league goals, at the age of 36 years, six months, during the 1947/1948 season, no other footballer, over the age of 35, had scored more than 30 goals, in any of Euro’s Big Five Leagues, in a season.

Ronaldo ended that when, at the age of 35 years and 166 days, he scored his 37th goal, after getting those two goals against Lyon.

Surely, even if you have always dismissed him as a showman, a football version of a weapon of mass destruction, somebody who doesn’t represent the football artistry, and purity, as reflected in the way the likes of Lionel Messi play, these statistics should blow away your resistance.

He is simply that good and, of course, he deserves that beautiful family retreat, with ‘Jerusalema’ playing in the background.

JERUSALEMA, THE PROMISED LAND, NUMBER 13, JOY AND PAIN, SUNSHINE AND RAIN

So, this week, in my dream, I had a conversation with a grieving Kaizer Chiefs fan who kept asking me, where I think his club got it wrong, in their sensational collapse, to virtually hand the title to Mamelodi Sundowns.

I told him some things are just meant to be.

I took him back to 1983, 13 years after his club’s founding, an Argentine coach with the name of their biggest rivals (Orlando Cesares) and reminded him they only won just one trophy, the League Cup, then known as the Datsun Challenge.

That’s also the year Sundowns arrived in the top-flight, 13 years after officially being recognised as a football club, in 1970.

“His CV looked good,” club chairman, Kaizer Motaung, said, “but he was a disaster. It can happen.”

Could he see any similarities, then and now, I asked him, with Ernst Middendorp?

I told him Chiefs aren’t are club who win the league title in a year that ends with a zero.

And, ahead of the final weekend, I had seen two much of the number 13, when it comes to Chiefs’ silverware, to feel uncomfortable.

Thirteen league titles, 13 League Cups, now called the Telkom Knockout, and 13 National Cups, now called the Nedbank Cup, I told him, the omens didn’t look good.

A few days before CR7’s heroics in Sweden, I reminded him, his goal celebration had played out at the Bidvest Stadium in Johannesburg when Khama Billiat scored.

And, as soon as the goal went in, someone at SuperSport TV decided to play “Jerusalema,’’ to provide the soundtrack to the Amakhosi goal celebrations.

After all, I told him, Mamelodi Sundowns were chasing their 13th league title.

The Brazilians had chased down Chiefs, from being 13 points behind, at one stage of the season, to have the same number of points, ahead of the final matches of the season.

The Amakhosi had also spent 13 months, at the top of the table.

And, when the two crucial matches ended on Saturday, the number of goals the Brazilians scored, since the restart of Supa Diski, were exactly 13.

There are things that you just can’t explain, I told him, like that Pitso Mosimane’s name has 13 letters but, he said, what about our chairman, Kaizer Motaung, doesn’t his name also have 13 letters?

I said, yes, you are right Bra but check Pitso’s assistant, Rulani Mokwena, and you will see his name also has 13 letters, the Sundowns’ nickname, “The Brazilians,” has 13 letters and their slogan, “Sky Is The Limit”, also has 13 letters.

I told him about the Sundowns’ hattrick hero on Saturday, Lebohang Maboe, that his name has 13 letters, their captain’s name, Hlompho Kekana, has 13 letters and their record title winner, Anthony Laffor, also has a name with 13 letters.

And, I told him, the name of their opponents last Saturday, Black Leopards, has 13 letters.

Black Leopards were from Limpopo, I told him, which is the home of Master KG, the very guy who has given us that global anthem, “Jerusalema.’’

His real name is Kgaogelo Moagi, which is also made up of 13 letters, and his first flirtation with music instruments came when he was just 13.

The beautiful voice, which has helped transform “Jerusalema’’ into this global, hit belongs to Nomsebo Zikode.

And, when you count the number of letters in her name, you get 13.

I asked him, what has been the other big story in South Africa this week, and he told me, “the death of anti-apartheid lawyer, George Bizos.’’

I asked him “do you know Bizos was just 13, when he arrived in South Africa, as a World War II refugee?’’

He said he didn’t know that, but only knew him as the lawyer, who defended “uTata uNelson Mandela.’’

I asked him can you count the letters, which make up Nelson Mandela’s iconic name, and he said 13.

What had been the biggest football story, this week, I asked, and he said CR7’s century of goals for Portugal.

If he has been following CR7’s career, I told him, then he should know his big breakthrough came 13 years ago, at the start of the 2007/2008 season.

The one in which he scored 42 goals, with 31 coming in 34 league matches, including free-kicks, like the one against Portsmouth, which appeared to defy gravity.

He told me, we can’t talk about Ronaldo, without talking about Messi.

And, I said, well, only 13 players, in the history of football, have had the privilege of being teammates of both Ronaldo and Messi at club and international level.

They are Fernando Gago, Gabriel Heinze, Gerard Pique, Andre Gomes, Angel Di Maria, Carlos Tevez, Paulo Dybala, Gonzalo Higuain, Henrik Larsson, Nelson Semedo, Ezequiel Garay, Deco and Martin Caceres.

I told him, Ronaldo’s milestone strikes in Sweden, this week, to take his tally to 101, means he has scored 13 more goals, for his country, than the combined total (88 goals) scored by those, in second and third place, for Portugal.

Pauleta, in second place, has 47 goals, and Eusebio, in third place, has 41 goals.

The Serie A championship, which Ronaldo won recently, I told him, was his 13th title, since he turned 30 — three Champions League titles, two FIFA Club World Cup crowns, two Serie A titles, a La Liga title, a UEFA Super Cup, a Spanish Super Cup title, a Super Copa Italian title, a Nations League title and the Euro 2016 title.

After that, I told him, let’s just go and dance to Master KG’s hit song, “Jerusalema,’’ because it’s our song, the one which even the great CR7 adopted.

It’s a privilege to listen to it, I told him, because it’s been viewed by more than 100 million people and, just imagine, if it was only available to people from countries, with a population of, at least 100 million people?

That means only citizens from the China, India, the United States, Brazil, Indonesia, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Mexico, Russia, Japan, the Philippines and Ethiopia would be allowed to enjoy it.

That’s when, he told me, that’s 13 countries, right?

And, I woke up from that dream to, once again, find the world dancing to “Jerusalema, ikhaya lami, Ngilondoloze, Uhambe nami’’

 To God Be The Glory!

Peace to the GEPA Chief, the Big Fish, George Norton and all the Chakariboys in the struggle.

Come on United!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bruno, Bruno, Bruno, Bruno, Bruno, Bruno!

Text Feedback — 0772545199

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Email — [email protected], [email protected]

You can also interact with me on Twitter — @Chakariboy, Facebook, Instagram — sharukor and every Wednesday night, at 9.45pm, when I join the legendary Charles “CNN’’ Mabika and producer Craig “Master Craig’’ Katsande on the ZBC television magazine programme, “Game Plan”

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