CHIRAMBADARE’S OVERALL CHIEFS STATS

really don’t do that, whether I play or not. Maybe I wasn’t good enough for the philosophy he came up with the second time, you know. I played in the first season and never played in the second one because there were changes in the philosophy that the coach was using. Maybe I was affected by the changes. BN: Sure. EC: You know, Beaver, football is not easy. People will always look at it from a distance and think it’s easy, but it’s not. One, Kaizer Chiefs is not a small team; it is a very big team. When they brought me in from Chicken Inn, it was a change of environment for me. Maybe I needed to adjust, but I was getting there because I won the Most Improved Player award. I think I was already getting there, but I don’t know what the coach’s plan was for me. But part of me feels that I wasn’t given enough chance to show my true qualities. How many games did I play last season? Only four and I never started any of those games. I tell you now, if I were given a chance, I would have grabbed it, but you cannot do much while sitting on the bench.

BN: Yet, in the 2016/17 season, you played 19 games, which is considered enough for any player to prove himself.

EC: That is when I got that award for the Most Improved Player. You can see I am not making excuses … I was not really given a fair chance. But, like I said, maybe I was affected by the change in philosophy by the coach. I was never given an explanation and I never asked.

BN: What sort of emotions do you go through when you think that you have gone from playing for such a prestigious club to turning out for a team that was playing in the third tier last season?

EC: Eish, my brother, as a player, playing for Africa’s biggest club and now having to go and play in the NFD, it’s draining one’s energy, I don’t want to lie to you. But I am not letting it get me down. I am looking forward to getting a chance at Maccabi and rising again. That’s all I can say. I know that with God everything is possible. God took me from Chicken Inn to Kaizer Chiefs and I believe that He can do it again. You know, wearing that Gold & Black jersey of Amakhosi for the first time against Cape Town City in the 2017 MTN8 quarterfinal was something out of this world and I was very happy. I am honoured to have donned that jersey. Even when I left, Bobby told me, ‘Listen, you are a good player and we don’t want to waste your talent here because you’re not playing. Go and make us proud. Show them wherever you go that you come from us.’ I was also fortunate enough to have someone like Willard Katsande who always encourages me and gives me hope. He always pushes me and I will forever be thankful to him. He is a very good guy,

Salt. BN: Right. EC: You know, in life, there are times where you’ll go up and be on top and there are times where you’ll go down and hit rock bottom. It’s not how you fall that is important, but how you get up, so all I have to do is to get up and make sure I stay there. BN: Before you signed for Chiefs, former Bidvest Wits and Sundowns striker, Alois Bunjira, organised you a trial at the Clever Boys, but nothing came of it.

EC: Yeah, that’s true. When Bunjira spoke to Wits about me, he said that I was a top striker. When I got there, I was played as a top striker and I struggled a bit in a friendly we played against a team from Botswana I think. I was told that I was not what they were looking for and I went back to Chicken Inn.

BN: Interestingly, you couldn’t impress Wits and Katsande couldn’t make the starting line-up at Ajax Cape Town, but both of you went on to play for arguably the biggest club in South Africa!

EC: Look, football is like that sometimes. The coaches’ philosophies are different from one another and that is why such cases occur. They look at different players to suit their styles of play. If I don’t fit in Wits’ style of play, it doesn’t mean I am not a good enough player, you understand, but rather I am not the type of player that suits their style of play. You have seen how Katsande has done for Chiefs all these years. The coach at Chiefs saw me as someone who can do the job for him and it is the same with Katsande

BN: The Zimbabwean national team did well to beat DR Congo by a 2-1 scoreline away in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier last weekend.

EC: Yho, the guys are making our country proud and I am very happy for them. I’m so proud of the team – they are true Warriors. My wish is that one day I get to play for my country again. I have faith in them and I know that they will qualify for the AFCON.

BN: Before we let you go, and on a lighter note, we understand that back in your hometown of Gweru in Zim, you were once both a footballer for Sino United FC and a barman, simultaneously.

EC: Ha, ha, ha, yeah I was a barman and a footballer at the same time. I had to adjust to that.

BN: But how did you manage to juggle between both?

EC: It was very tough, my brother. I grew up loving soccer and playing with a ball made out of a paper bag in the streets – that’s how much I have always loved football! I then got this job while playing for Sino United FC and I had to take it because I needed the money, you know. Growing up, it was not easy, but I managed to make it. Having that job for six months and playing football at the same time wasn’t easy to do, but it was something that had to be done.

BN: Eddy, thank you for the chat. All the best this season.

EC: Thank you, my big brother. I really appreciate you guys at Soccer Laduma thinking about me.