Zimpapers Logo

This week, Ndumiso Gumede died at Mpilo Hospital, bringing the curtain down on a life which he dedicated to the game he loved, with all his heart. Somehow, the football gods decided to take him away from us, on the very same day that the Warriors left the country, for their 2021 AFCON adventure, in Cameroon. The irony couldn’t have been more striking. A national team, without a national leader right now, because of the failures of those who had captured it, somehow losing their icon, at a time when they needed him the most.

Sharuko On Saturday

THEY are the closest thing football has to Siamese twins — their primary identity, the falling black stripes stitched onto a white background, is as iconic as it is romantic.

They have an identical attachment to royalty and coalfields.

And, they also have a constituency, in terms of their support base, which believes in them so much, they have become a significant part of its life.

Highlanders and Newcastle!

Where you have King Lobengula’s grandsons, Rhodes and Albert, in the Bosso corner, you have the wealthy Saudi Crown Prince in the Magpies corner.

Newcastle are a giant football club built on a foundation of coal.

Highlanders are also a giant football club who have been shaped, in a big way, by their proximity to the largest coalfields in Zimbabwe.

Marvelous Nakamba, who passed through the club’s development structures, is the latest Zimbabwean English Premiership footballer.

He was born at a coal mining town in Hwange.

The irony is that, next month, he would probably have been playing for Newcastle had Steve Gerrard not arrived at Aston Villa, and revitalised his romance with the Birmingham club.

The most authoritative historian today, when it comes to Highlanders, is journalist, Lovemore Dube.

A former Sports Editor of the Chronicle, he grew up in Hwange.

Even the leading daily newspapers in Newcastle and Bulawayo share the same name, Chronicle, and both have a strong attachment to the Magpies and Bosso.

One of the most revered sons of Newcastle United is Bobby Robson.

His legacy spills beyond the borders of English football and he is respected around the world for his influence throughout the game, including shaping the careers of the likes of Jose Mourinho.

Robson was in charge of his country, when they lost to Diego Maradona’s Hand of God controversial goal, in the quarter-finals of the ’86 World Cup, in Mexico.

It’s a tournament, they probably could have won, had they cleared that hurdle.

He was in charge of his country, when they lost to eventual champions Germany, in a penalty shootout, in the semi-finals of the ’90 World Cup, in Italy.

It’s a tournament, too, the Three Lions would probably have won, had they cleared that hurdle.

During a 37-year career, Robson coached and won silverware at Ipswich Town, PSV Eindhoven, Sporting Lisbon, Porto and Barcelona.

His remarkable success, included winning the UEFA Cup, the UEFA Cup Winners Cup, league championships and the FA Cup and the final chapter, in his coaching career, fittingly came at Newcastle United.

In 2002, he was awarded the freedom of Newcastle upon Tyne for his services to football and, in the following year, he was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame.

Today, outside St James Park, the home of Newcastle United, stands the giant statue of Bobby Robson.

On July 31, 2009, Robson lost the biggest battle of his life, when he succumbed to lung cancer, bringing an end to a life in which he had given more than half-a-century to football.

“It is a sad day and a great loss. He was a wonderful man and will be deeply missed by everybody in the country,” said Gary Lineker, the striker who had led the line for England, at the ’86 and ’90 World Cup finals.

“I never played for a more enthusiastic man. He gave so much to the game.”

Sir Alex Ferguson, another iconic football manager who was then in charge of Manchester United, said the beautiful game had lost one of its best friends.

Fergie described Robson as a “great friend, a wonderful individual and tremendous football man.”

Robson was 76, at the time of his death.

Little did Ferguson know that, in just nine years’ time, he would also be in the intensive care unit of a British hospital, and fighting for his life.

In May 2018, the most successful British football manager in history, was on the very edge of death, with specialist doctors desperately battling to save his life, at Salford Royal Hospital.

He had suffered a brain haemorrhage at his home in Wilmslow, Cheshire, and had undergone emergency surgery as doctors battled to stop the bleeding in his brain.

Given his incredible success in the game, winning 38 titles, including 13 English Premiership trophies with the Red Devils, his plight captured global attention.

Even if he survived, there were fears Ferguson would lose his memory and would never remember any of the sights, and sounds, of the time in the trenches of football.

 “Losing my memory was my biggest fear when I suffered a brain haemorrhage in 2018,” he said in the television documentary, “Sir Alex Ferguson: Never Give In,” which was directed by his son Jason.

“In the making of this film I was able to revisit the most important moments of my life, good and bad.

“Having my son Jason direct this film has ensured an honest and intimate account.”

Ferguson was 76, when he suffered a brain haemorrhage.

That’s exactly the same age Bobby Robson, his “great friend, a wonderful individual and tremendous football man,” lost his battle against lung cancer, and died.

 

SOMEHOW, LEGENDS DIE AT 76

 

On September 28, 2003, the tennis world was plunged into mourning when Althea Neale Gibson, a trailblazer who, in 1956, became the first black American to win a Grand Slam title, when he captured the French Open, died.

She was quite a star, whose brilliance crashed through the racial barriers, and helped her win Wimbledon in 1957 and the US Nationals, the flagship tournament in the United States, before the US Open.

To show her achievements were not a fluke, she won both tournaments, again in 1958 and was voted the Female Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press.

By the time she called time on her illustrious career, she had won 11 Grand Slam tournaments, and been inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame and International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame.

Those who had the privilege to watch her play claim she would have beaten Serena Williams, the most dominant player of her generation, hands down.

That Gibson achieved all that, at a time when racism and prejudice were widespread, if not acceptable, in the world, makes her story such a beautiful tale and underlines how special she was.

“I am honoured to have followed in such great footsteps”, wrote Venus Williams. “Her accomplishments set the stage for my success, and through players like myself and Serena and many others to come, her legacy will live on.”

On September 3, 2003, Gibson died.

She was 76.

It’s also the same age at which Rudolf Dassler, the man who founded iconic German sportswear firm, Puma, died, on October 27, 1974.

That’s also the same age Albert Einstein, one of the greatest theoretical physicists of all-time, died on April 18, 1955.

His death came exactly 10 years after one of his greatest creations, the nuclear bomb, was dropped, with devastating consequences, on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, towards the end of World War II.

Einstein was part of the leading crew of top scientists, who worked on the Manhattan Project, which came up with the nuclear bomb, and ushered the world into a new era of devastation.

“I want to go when I want,” Einstein is said to have told those who were tending him, in his final days. “It is tasteless to prolong life artificially.

“I have done my share, it is time to go. I will do it elegantly.”

The end came that day on April 18, 1955, as he succumbed to an abdominal aortic aneurysm.

And, just hours after his death, his brain was removed and stolen from his corpse, to be stashed in a jar in an American doctor’s home, who said he wanted to use it for his research.

Somehow, Einstein died at the same age (76), as Stephen Hawking, another genius, who was also a theoretical physicist and widely considered to have one of the sharpest minds ever given to a human being.

Such was his impact that, in 2002, the BBC poll of the 100 Greatest Britons saw him rank as number 25.

Of course, Hawking was as brilliant as he was controversial and claimed the concept, which embraces the existence of an afterlife, is a “fairy story for people afraid of the dark.

“We are each free to believe what we want and it is my view that the simplest explanation is there is no God.

“No one created the universe and no one directs our fate. This leads me to a profound realisation. There is probably no heaven, and no afterlife either.

“We have this one life to appreciate the grand design of the universe, and for that, I am extremely grateful.”

It’s something I find as reckless as it is mischievous, especially from someone blessed with such a beautiful mind.

On March 14, 2018, Hawking died at home in Cambridge, and he was 76.

Roman Emperor Augustus, Louis XIV, the King of France, Orville Wright, one of the American brothers who came up with the world’s first plane, George II, the King of Britain, Boris Yeltsin, the former Russian leader, were all 76, at the time of their death.

And, so was Corazon Acquino, the first woman to be elected President of the Philippines, who died on August 1, 2009, after having battled colorectal cancer for some time.

She was 76.

Ferrucio Lamborghini is the Italian who gave the world one of its fanciest sports cars named after him.

It’s a thriving company, which still manufactures iconic luxury sports cars, and is now owned by the Volkswagen Group, under their Audi subsidiary.

Lamborghini died on February 20, 1993.

He was 76.

 

GUMZ, THE BEST ZIFA BOSS WE NEVER HAD

 

In November, I wrote a piece about Ndumiso Gumede describing him as the best ZIFA president we never had the chance to have, because of the politics in the game, where hopeless administrators are parachuted into leadership roles.

The article tried to capture how his lifelong affair with football had even cost him his marriage, which collapsed, leaving him with two boys, to remind him of that union.

I suggested he was probably the most authoritative football mind in the country, a man who had gone through it all, in a public service to the game, which started even before Peter Ndlovu was born.

That the greatest Warrior of all-time will turn 49, next month, puts into context the dedication, which Gumede attached, to the service of our national game.

I suggested that it was an indictment of our game that such a great man like Gumede, with all his vast knowledge, could only be accommodated, in its administrative structures, as a running mate of Cuthbert Dube, in the latter’s bid for the ZIFA presidency, in 2010.

And, that it was an insult to the gods of football that such an illustrious man, whose rich and impressive CV showed the acquisition of three properties for Highlanders, during his time as chairman of the club, had to be pushed into the shadow of Dube, in the politics of our game’s landscape.

That it was a shame to all of us that such a tried-and-tested leader, with a background which showed he could deliver, had to agree to a coalition, as the junior partner, in the leadership of our game, with Dube in the hot seat.

That our kids will judge us harshly, for destroying their game because, in our moments of either weakness or madness, we somehow found someone like Cuthbert Dube to be a better candidate, to lead our football, with a man like Gumede playing the backbencher role.

That we should all consider ourselves to be the merchants of destruction, the blind messengers of the Devil and the agents of turmoil, given we somehow ended up considering that any other man, in domestic football, could stand toe-to-toe with Gumede, in terms of having the right qualities, to lead our national game.

That we were seemingly waiting for him to die, for us to stampede to his final resting place, where we would, without any shame whatsoever, talk about how great a football servant he was, when we have been frowning upon him, all this time.

Our game today finds itself at the crossroads, after years of being choked by some useless administrators, without any clue whatsoever of what is needed, to provide the kind of leadership, which it has been crying for.

All that they want is to fly to every part of the world, as guests of FIFA, pick up some allowances here and there, and come back smiling all the way to the bank, without any concern whatsoever, of the poor health of the domestic game.

This week, Gumede died at Mpilo Hospital, bringing the curtain down on a life which he dedicated to the game he loved, with all his heart.

Somehow, the football gods decided to take him away from us, on the very same day that the Warriors left the country, for their 2021 AFCON adventure, in Cameroon.

The irony couldn’t have been more striking.

A national team, without a national leader right now, because of the failures of those who had captured it, somehow losing their icon, at a time when they needed him the most.

A national game, which now faces suspension from FIFA, as those who came through its back doors continue to try and hang on, because their personal interests are more important than the national interests, losing its calming influence, at a time it badly needed him.

That’s what the world’s leading scientists felt, when God decided it was time to recall Einstein and Hawking, and that’s what the fans of Newcastle United felt, when Bobby Robson was also recalled.

And, just like Gumede, they were all 76, at the time of their death. And, so was Ike Turner, who was 76, when he died on December 12, 2007.

And, so was Miriam Makeba, who was 76, when he died on November 1, 2008. And, so was Aretha Franklin, who died on August 16, 2018.

And, so was Ben E. King, who was 76, when he died on April 30, 2015.

Somehow, it was Ben E. King’s classic “Stand By Me,” which Gumede was also a singer, chose to sing, just a week ago, as Highlanders honoured him for his services to the club, in particular, and football, in general.

It’s something he loved, and there are many, in local football right now, who are feeling that his death was the moment the music died.

For some of us, it will never die, immortalised forever, in the lyrics of Lovemore Majaivana.

“Yinyoni bani engela mathambo.

“Bathi idlala njani ingela mathambo.

“Dumiso Gumede, kana mathambo,

“Ubaphethe njani engela mathambo.”

Absolute class, absolute legend, officially the greatest ZIFA president we never had.

Rest in Peace Yours Truly in that Special Class of ’76.

 

To God Be The Glory!

Peace to the GEPA Chief, the Big Fish, George Norton, Daily Service, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and all the Chakariboys still in the struggle.

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

Ronaldooooooooooooooooo!

Text Feedback 0772545199

WhatsApp 0772545199

Email- [email protected]; [email protected]

 You can also interact with me on Twitter (@Chakariboy), Facebook, Instagram (sharukor) and Skype (sharuko58) and GamePlan, the authoritative football magazine show on ZTV, where I interact with the legendary Charles Mabika, is back every Wednesday night at 9.30pm