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Leonard Tsipa

Robson Sharuko: Senior Sports Editor

LEONARD TSIPA enhanced his credentials to become the oldest winner of the Soccer Star of the Year award, which he could spice with the Golden Boot gong, after scoring yet again on Saturday as CAPS United moved an inch closer to winning their first league championship title in 11 years.The ageless forward, who turns 35 on January 25 next year, showed once again why he is the ace in the Green Machine attack with a priceless contribution to their cause as he scored the solitary goal which gave CAPS United a hard-fought victory over an inspired youthful Harare City at Rufaro.

Tsipa, who missed the six-goal Harare Derby thriller through suspension, made an immediate impact on his return to duty by heading home an early goal for a Green Machine team which poses the greatest aerial threat in the league having scored three times from balls floated from dead balls to conjure the greatest escape in the history of the Harare Derby.

That goal took his season’s tally to a dozen goals and Tsipa was unlucky not to make it 13 goals, midway in the first half, when a clever flick turned the ball home only for the far side assistant referee to make a questionable call that he had strayed into an off-side position when the ball was curled into his path.

He also had a good chance, to add to his tally, after finding space down the middle but he fired horribly wide as the effects of an injury, which he had picked at the start of the game and which would see him being pulled out before the half-time break, began to take its toll on this combative CAPS United forward.

For a man who was on the brink of quitting top-flight football, having been considered a spent force that had taken a lot of battering from the trenches of the domestic Premiership where he has been operating since the turn of the century, Tsipa’s stunning revival — powered by a never-say-die spirit — has been one of the great feel-good stories of this Premiership campaign.

And there could be rich rewards for him, at the end of the season, with Tsipa certainly one of, if not the odds-on favourite, to be crowned Soccer Star of the Year in a campaign he is also set to win the Golden Boot.

Admittedly, the 2016 Castle Lager Premiership season has been short on genuine stars, whose skills — either defensive or offensive — have lit up the campaign and long on a number of pretenders to the throne vacated by Danny Phiri whose leadership led Chicken Inn to their finest hour last year as they won the league championship. But Tsipa has been one of the better players, by a country mile, and that he has dwarfed all the forwards in the league, at an age when most players of his age have long gone into retirement, has been remarkable and there could be massive dividends for him at the end of what is promising to be a landmark season for Makepekepe.

Tsipa embodies the true spirit of a CAPS United legend, having featured prominently when the Green Machine won back-to-back league titles under Charles Mhlauri in 2004 and 2005, although a season-long flirtation with the old enemy Dynamos means there are some within the Green Machine family who will never forgive him.

But, should he lead CAPS United from the front to their first league title in more than a decade, and only their fifth in the club’s history, finally ending a decade of pain when they have watched from a distance as their biggest rivals Dynamos dominated the scene with five championships — and a place in the semi-finals of the CAF Champions League to boot — Tsipa would have done enough to be forgiven for the madness which saw him cross the Great Divide and play for the ultimate enemy.

The Glamour Boys have also supplied four Soccer Stars of the Year, during that period of dominance in the past 10 years — when they didn’t only win five league titles, including four on the trot, but remain the only club to win the championship more than once — with Murape Murape (2007), Washington Arubi (2011), Denver Mukamba (2012) and Tawanda Muparati (2013) all being honoured. There has never been an older player than Tsipa to win the Soccer Star of the Year since 1969 when this award, to reward the finest player in domestic football ever season, was launched.

George Shaya, five-time winner of the award, was 31 when he won the last of his Soccer Star of the Year awards in 1977. The last CAPS United player to be crowned Soccer Star of the Year was Joseph Kamwendo who was the club, and league’s best player, as they defended their league title in 2005, during a period of dominance for the Green Machine with Energy Murambadoro winning the award in 2003 and Cephas Chimedza winning it in 2004.

And, 11 years after Kamwendo’s finest hour, Tsipa looks poised to end CAPS United’s long wait to see heir players being named the best in the domestic Premiership.

The Green Machine took their tally to 57 points on Saturday and they could be crowned champions in their next league assignment, at home, should they beat Ngezi Platinum Stars and Highlanders and FC Platinum share the spoils in their battle at Mandava in Week 29.

CAPS United have never accumulated so many points, in a season, and failed to win the championship since they finished with 57 points in 1997 as they finished second to Dynamos in the race.

It’s their biggest points haul in 10 years, they have already won more games than in any other season in the past 10 years, lost the least number of games and conceded the least number of goals. They could end up with more goals, than in any season in the past 10 years, and Tsipa has played a big factor in that.