Soccer like politics runs in my family blood. In as much as I was born into a family thriving with political zeal, it was also one that was so passionate about football. And so it happened when I was born in early 1975, it was out of a family in which both my parents were well known activists and an integral part of the local town political leadership under the auspices of the Joshua Nkomo led Zimbabwe African People’s Union party. (ZAPU)
I remember vividly that when I was growing up as a boy in the coal mining town of Hwange in south western Zimbabwe, both soccer and politics completely dominated my daily life.
Take the walls of the family lounge as a good example. They were filled with several picture frames all around that did not have family photos. Instead most of them contained pictures of either Joshua Nkomo or group portraits of Zulu Royals football club.
The team was led by my father who at one stage was also active player and captain, before retiring into the role of coach and eventually becoming the chairman of the committee that managed the club.
I clearly remember that by the time I was slightly over five years old, I was already attending the team’s half time discussions during its league matches. I also had the enviable privilege of travelling with the team for its away games in the neighbouring townships such as Madumabisa (Number Two Colliery) and Makwika (Number Three Colliery). The team was based in the original and biggest township of Lwendulu (Number One Colliery).
In fact, my father’s team was one of the leading teams in the local amateur football league that was known as the Wankie Football Association. (WAFA) The team used to fight for the local leadership mettle with the likes of Kabwe Warriors, Giant Killers, Raylton and Rufaro Rovers.
The league was part of the sustainable sports and recreation strategy of the local Wankie Colliery Company (WCC) and very professionally administered. It also had the dual role of being the breeding ground for potential future players of the more famous Wankie Football Club (Chipangano) that was also one of the leading clubs of the elite national soccer league of Zimbabwe.
It was thus inevitable that my siblings and I grew up playing lots of soccer. And almost inevitable we played so much of the beautiful game in the hours after school and during weekends. In those days, each section of the township used to have its own team and local dusty playing field. I remember that most of these fields had such fancy names as Japan, Swaziland, China, and Brazil to mention but a few.
By the time I was reaching the end of my primary school years, I was a very active footballer. I normal used to play the role of a central defender in a libero role that was made famous by the legendary Italian Franco Barresi.
I used to play for my Saint Ignatius primary school class team in those years. But even more crucially at home, we eventually built a team of fearsome repute that derived most of its players from our local M section. And so it happened that between the 1980s and the early 1990s, I could be found regularly featuring for my home team.
It was also during those years that a local junior league for our township was set up. The league was known as the Lwendulu Football Association. (LIFA) My young brother Lovemore Mguni showed his immense leadership pedigree by forming a glorious team that played in that league. The team was known as Skyline Football Club. It was very successful so much that even attracted excellent players from other neighbouring sections.
After my primary school years, I continued to play the beautiful game at John Tallach secondary school. I used to play as a right back for my house team called Radasi but I never really made it into the main school team. A similar trend also occurred when I went to Fletcher High school in Gweru. I continued to play soccer but mostly for my house team and never really broke into the school’s main team.
Unfortunately it so happened that when I was admitted to the law faculty of the University of Zimbabwe in Harare my soccer playing days ended prematurely. Instead it was politics, my other dual passion that completely took over the centre stage from soccer.
The fact that I was elected as the students union Secretary General in my first year at law school meant that I was never really able to continue as a soccer player. This was in spite of the fact that the university had its own highly competitive social soccer league and also a semi professional team that played in the second division of the national league.
The only serious soccer match I played in at university was a special friendly match between the leaders of the students union and the lecturers union in my last year at the college. I remember that I had to borrow some soccer boots from one of the players from the main university team who later became a famous international soccer star. His name was Benjani Mwaruwari!
Be that as it may, I may need to add that I was nominally involved in one of the most successful soccer teams to ever come from the university in the late 1990s. This happened in the years when the former President of Zimbabwe, Professor Canaan Banana was heavily involved n supporting the team. He is the one who approached me and persuaded me to be the chairperson of the university soccer team’s disciplinary committee.
And so it happened that during those years at the university I devolved from being an active soccer player to a very passionate soccer fan. In my primary school years, I had dual loyalty to my local team Wankie FC together with the legendary Bulawayo based team, Highlanders Football Club (Bosso)
I had also been an avid fan of Liverpool Football Club in England largely due the influence of its famous Zimbabwean goalkeeper, Bruce Grobbelaar. It was during those successful years in which the mighty Reds boasted with such talents as Kenny Dalglish, Kevin Keegan, Peter Beardsley, Ray Houghton, Ian Rush, John Barnes, among an array of skilful soccer stars.
But as fate would have it, by the late 1990s, Liverpool had lost its stranglehold on the English soccer league to the Sir Alex Ferguson led Red Devils, Manchester United Football Club. Naturally, I developed a very strong dislike to the league upstarts that has unsurprisingly lasted up to this day.
It was during those years of despair for Liverpool when a new challenger emerged in the English soccer league, Arsenal Football Club.
Until then, the Gunners had remained in relative obscurity but it was the arrival of the legendary Arsene Wenger in September 1996 that galvanised the team to be a force to be reckoned with. It was during those early years of Wenger that I began to slowly but surely, gravitate from Anfield to Highbury, the famous old home of the Gunners in north London.
And when Wenger led his team to his first league title in the 1997-98 season; everyone including myself, was forced to recognise his team’s competitive edge.
But it was Wenger’s signing of the most famous footballer to ever don the Gunners red and white shirt, Thierry Henry in 1999 that proved to be a decisive turning point for me. It was Henry, who I now highly regard as my favourite footballer of all time, who completely swayed me to become an Arsenal fan.
From that time onwards I continued to grow from strength to strength in my passionate support of the Gunners. My evolution into a life-long Arsenal soccer fanatic reached its full cycle during the 2003-4 season. That was the year of the legendary Invincibles.
Inspired by a Henry who was now on the peak of his English soccer career, the Gunners managed to start and end that season without a single defeat. This was a very rare achievement that may never be repeated in the history of professional football not just in England but also anywhere in the world for that matter!
By 2005, I was then fully transformed into a fully fledged Gooner and have been actively supporting Wenger as he led the modernisation of the Arsenal. This is a process that among its highlights included the move to a new 60 000 seater stadium at Ashburton Grove, still in north London.
So for many years I have continued to support the Gunners passionately and followed their games on television. However, I always felt that my initiation as a lifelong Arsenal fan would never be fully completed unless and until I had got the privileged opportunity to watch the Gunners play in person.
It was always my wish that a chance like that would come my way, sooner than later!
And then it happened by chance in July 2010. Wenger normally prefers to take his team for a pre-season training camp in Austria. And so it happened that this time around, I had also travelled to Vienna to attend the 18th International AIDS conference that was hosted by the International AIDS Society.
When I learnt that the first friendly game that the Gunners would play would be around the same time as the AIDS conference, I was so excited. While in Vienna I inquired about the distance of the capital city from Graz, the venue of the Arsenal game against the local team. I was told that Graz was about 200km away from where I was.
I inquired about the price of the air tickets first and when I realised that I could not afford them, I then turned to the railways as a more pragmatic option. And so it happened that on Wednesday 21st July 2010, I travelled by train to Graz. The train had some problems and so we had a delayed arrival.
But I managed to take my seat at the UPC Arena slightly over five minutes before half time. The score at that time was tied at nil-nil. Tears flowed from eyes when for the very first time in my life; I saw the great Wenger and his talented team in person!
As if to celebrate that awesome moment with me, Samir Nasri scored a beautiful goal from a free kick that sent all the Arsenal fanatics, including myself into some frenetic delight.
I will never forget that game for the rest of life because it was on that very same day, that I really felt that I was a full fan of Arsenal football club at last. And now the Emirates stadium experience beckons for me. It just a matter of time.
Come on you Gunners! Victory through harmony! Victoria Concordia Crescit!
