mbulelo smpofu
Langton Nyakwenda, Harare Bureau
TWENTY-SIX years ago, Dynamos were still basking in glory, after becoming the first Zimbabwe club to reach the Caf Champions League final.
DeMbare lost 4-2 on aggregate to Cote d’Ivoire giants Asec Mimosas, in a two-legged final.
The first leg ended 0-0 at the National Sports Stadium in Harare on November 28, 1998, before Dynamos crumbled in the return fixture at the Stade Felix Houphouet-Boigny in Abidjan on December 12.
Makwinji Soma-Phiri scored DeMbare’s first goal in that final, with Ghanaian George Owusu chipping in with the second.
Soma-Phiri remains the only Zimbabwean to score in a Caf Champions League final.
It is a special record that he has kept for the past 26 years as no other Zimbabwean club has reached the final since 1998.
Soma-Phiri is now aiming to break another record.
He wants to be the first ex-professional footballer to lead Zifa.
Soma-Phiri is one of six candidates vying for the Zifa presidency on January 25.
Nqobile Magwizi, Twine Phiri, Philemon Machana, Marshal Gore and Martin Kweza are the other candidates, but none of them have ever played professional football.
“Doctors’ associations are run by doctors, lawyers run their own organisations, politicians run their politics and so do musicians. But in football, we allow non-football people to run our football. “We should be running our own football,” Soma-Phiri told Zimpapers Sports Hub yesterday.
“We need to reclaim our football and make it a family game as it used to be back then. Remember, back in the day, fans would pack the National Sports Stadium but now there seems to be little interest in football.
“We need to correct that. We need to transform our game so that fans can come back. We need unity, this is not about Makwinji winning, it’s about the good of the game. Everyone has to play a role; we have to fix this game together.”
Soma-Phiri has been running businesses in Harare and he now wants to join the mainstream football administration.
The former Highlanders gunman hinted this route in an interview with The Sunday Mail in 2020.
He also felt Dynamos had not reached the levels he expected.
“Scoring in that final was a huge achievement and it’s unbelievable, 22 years later, no team from Zimbabwe has reached the final. Sadly, football in general has gone down instead of up,” he said back then.
He was saddened by the fact that Dynamos had failed to transform into a continental powerhouse.
“Dynamos are not even close to what they can achieve,” he said.
Four years later, Soma-Phiri still has the same sentiments.
“Imagine, since 1998 no Zimbabwean team has reached the Caf Champions League final. As a country, we should have built on that achievement but sadly, people have watched as the situation deteriorated.
“Our maiden appearance at the Africa Cup of Nations finals was back in 2004 but more than 20 years later, we are yet to progress beyond the group stages. It’s like our football has remained stuck in a pit.
“Now is the time to restart everything, from grassroots development to the empowerment of the girl child. Every team should have women’s teams right from the junior level,” said Soma-Phiri.
He starred for Dynamos in a squad led by skipper Memory Mucherahowa and included big-name players like Gift “Umbro” Muzadzi, Ernest Chirambadare, Masimba Dinyero, Kalisto Pasuwa and a youthful Desmond “Gazza” Maringwa.
Soma-Phiri established himself at Highlanders before joining Dynamos in 1994.
He also played in South Africa for SuperSport United and Hellenic between 2000 and 2006.
His vision includes the improvement of player welfare, development of grassroots football, mordenisation of training facilities, re-ignition of Zimbabwe’s football spirit and expanding opportunities for international football contracts for local players.
Siphakeme .Mnindwa
