MEET GOAL MACHINE WITH 144 GOALS IN ONE SEASON
JUST imagine spending your entire career playing on the lower rungs of football after being touted as a scoring sensation!
Such was the case with Oliver Ncube Shonhiwa who spent his entire footballing career plying his trade in Division One outfits.
After all he was a scoring machine who could have made an automatic grade in the topflight league had it not been for the afterthought decision to settle for a sales man job as it was known back then, but now known as sales represantative. That decision restricted him to Division One teams as he moved from second tier team to another till he called it quits.
A question pops up on why he confined himself to Division One teams. His answer was, “I took soccer as a pastime as I played for pleasure, just to enjoy and not to earn a living from it.”
His long time coach who discovered him from Mzilikazi suburb and coached him through Under- 12,14,16 and 18 feels he wasted a lot of talent.
“Shonhiwa was a very talented striker who could score more than three goals per match and he had a great future ahead but despite his scoring gift he decided to opt for a job, as such he failed to join a Premier Soccer League team because of a tight schedule at his work place. I am of the opinion that he wasted a lot of scoring talent,” said Ali “Baba” Dube who is held in high esteem for scouting and grooming talent.
He cut his football teeth at Highlanders FC Under-12 where he was coached by Ali “Baba” Dube. He rose through the ranks to turn out for a highly fancied juniors team — Liverpool FC which was a Highlanders Under-18 side. He proved himself as a centre striker and scored at free will. Dube notes that his new found boy scored more than 100 goals in a season.
“He had precision when it came to scoring as he scored 144 goals in one season and that set him among the top goal scorers on the second tier league,” he said.
At Liverpool FC he played alongside Willard Khumalo, Mercedes “Rambo” Sibanda, Patson Phiri, Aguy Moyo, Harold Ndimande and Nestai Moyo.
He combined well with Bobi Ncube who supplied good crosses from the right wing and Aguy Moyo who pumped good crosses from his left wing and that enabled him to become a scoring wizard.
Being a scoring wizard he helped his team land the Chibuku Cup and it became a memorable point of his career.
“We played Mangura FC at Rufaro stadium. We were beaten 2-1 in the first half. During match analysis the head coach Ali “Baba” did not utter a word. The assistant coach Cosmas “Tsano” Zulu spoke to us and we went fired up for the second half,” he said.
He added: “Just in the early moments of the second half Bobi scored a brace while Aguy netted one . In the dying moments of the game I scored a header from inside the 18 area. That became the winning goal that helped us to clinch the Chibuku Cup,” said Shonhiwa. Shonhiwa remembers glowingly how they used to celebrate after scoring each goal. “We used to pull up and down socks and the whole team would do that,” he said. Highlanders senior team players downed tools in 1982 and that became a chance for the bulk of the players from Liverpool FC to do duty for the senior team, but he only played a few games. He said that makeshift squad played against Gweru United FC and they drew 2:2. In that match he scored a brace. In search of greener pastures in 1984 he left Liverpool FC and joined Redseal FC where he was given a job as a sales representative. After spending two seasons with the outfit he left and joined Archers FC which was under the tutelage of Gibson Homela. After spending a season with Archers he left to join Zimbabwe Colts where he later hung his boots. Unlike many players who do coaching courses after their career as a fallback Shonhiwa opted for farming. Shonhiwa is married to Esmah and they are blessed with four children — Trevor, Samantha, Tinotenda and Anesu. He is also a Christian.