Lulu the Tshabalala gem
“YOUNGMAN do you see NaThoko on the terraces, she is here to collect my winning bonus, so up your game, we are not here for fun,” said the late Gweru and Hwange FC left back to a terrified teenage striker Mandla Mpofu at Ziscosteel FC before a home tie in 1993.
Mpofu was one of the three boys who had just joined the Super League founding club from Bulawayo.
In an interview with Sunday Life on Friday, Mpofu said the senior players had a workmanlike approach to every game and wanted the best from every member of the matchday squad.
Mpofu had been signed from Kenny Banda’s Blackpool side of Tshabalala who played in the Bulawayo Province Division Two League. He was still wet behind the ears with two options at his disposal, a career as a sprinter or as a footballer.
Back then organisations and mines like Zisco, employed many talented youths as fulltime or parttime athletes and played a very significant role in developing the discipline while at the same time providing careers for football.
Mpofu was just fresh from Ihlathi High School where from Form One in 1989 he scooped prizes for the best all-round sportsperson for his age-groups up to Form Four.
Unknown to him he had been identified by former Highlanders, Zimbabwe Saints, Zisco and Zimbabwe Centre back Ephraim Moloi at a cluster competition.
“So, in December after writing my ‘O’ Levels examinations, I was invited for a trial by Moloi who had seen me at a school match and was impressed. I did enough to earn an invite to join the side when preparations for the inaugural Premier Soccer League season started in January. I trained as an athlete for about a week but I then decided to concentrate on football,” said Mpofu who had won sprint events from primary school and represented Bulawayo and Matabeleland Provinces in the national finals. A t both school levels, football was an afterthought, his primary love was athletics in which he reigned supreme in the 100 and 200m sprints earning himself a place in the Zimbabwe Under-20 team.
“We were supposed to travel to Namibia for a regional competition but could not after the association could not raise enough. That denied me a chance to represent my country in athletics, but I am perennially grateful to God that he
made it possible for me to coach Zimbabwe national teams,” said the football gaffer who is among a few to have been involved from Under17 to the senior national team.
Mpofu says teachers at Mahlabezulu Primary School in Tshabalala, Bulawayo, pushed him to play as a striker having started off as a goalkeeper.
“They advocated that I should use one strength of speed in my football and they made me play as a striker though I would later on change to midfield,” he said.
After catching the eyes of CB Mpofu and Albert Ali Dube of Highlanders, Mpofu found himself at the Highlanders juniors in 19901991.
“It was a tough call for me to play for Highlanders and Blackpool who were in Division Five back then owned by Kenney Banda who assisted me with fees and all my other needs as a school boy. There were times where I would miss Bosso Juniors’ games and Ali would be mad about it and take Melusi Ndebele to task for not coming with me. With pressure on my own I decided to leave Highlanders Juniors where I was with the likes of Lenny Gwata, Master Masiku and Melusi Ndebele for Blackpool and I continued to rise until I got the Zisco opportunity. I was just 18 and unaware of the football industry other than idolising some of the great names football offered back then like Jimmy Phiri, Madinda Ndlovu, Willard Khumalo, Mercedes Sibanda, Joseph Machingura,” said the man many got to call Lulu or Diego.
He was also a victim of the Mzilikazi bullying for out of suburb players. “Some days we would walk up to Nguboyenja bus stop and meet some of our colleagues who would say there is no training. The next day we turn up and we get taken to task by Ali Dube for absenteeism, but it was friendly fire, we never gave up with my walking from Tshabalala partner,” said Mpofu.