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“Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them,” wrote the greatest bard of them all, William Shakespeare, in his play Twelfth Night.
But in which category does Moses “Bambo” Chunga belong?
He was born with a great talent which he used to achieve greatness but, in his post-football-playing period, when greatness was thrust upon him, he snubbed it. And time will show how this “legend” of Zimbabwean soccer got his chance and blew it.
Chunga dumped reigning champions Gunners before they took a shot at the African Champions League and has taken charge of Shooting Stars. For the next season, instead of rubbing shoulders with the greatest players and coaches on the continent he has chosen the drabness of local football.
“It will be a decision he will regret,” said a soccer administrator who requested anonymity because he is close to the coach.
“The African safari would have given him exposure. It would have given him the chance to prove himself on a bigger arena and who knows, he might have been identified by bigger clubs on the continent and even abroad. He would also have come under national scrutiny and, may be afterwards, landed the national team post.”
In apparent reference to the fallout with Gunners, Chunga said, “I do not want to be treated like trash”.
He said that there was something wrong with Zimbabweans as they do not honour their football legends.
“I am not asking for favours from anyone and that includes you (the media). I deserve respect. If you go to South Africa they have respect for their legends. You should look at the respect that Doctor Khumalo commands in South Africa but here it is the opposite,” Chunga said.
Chunga claims that he is misunderstood and some people treat him like “trash”.
The former Dynamos star has never been short on controversy. He was probably the first premiership coach to bring his brood on tow to Rufaro and sat on the bench with the two children.
He shocked all and sundry one sunny day, when he strolled into Gwanzura bare footed and said, “It was too hot (to put on shoes).”
But when he dumped Gunners — a team that he led to the first premiership title last year and also clinched him his first-ever championship as coach, tongues started wagging. On December 17 last year Chunga and his wife shared the table with Gunners director, Cuthbert Chitima at the glitzy Soccer Star of the Year banquet.
Garbed in a grey suit and blue shirt without a tie, Chunga paid tribute to his wife for “believing in him”, when he was crowned the Coach of the Year. This was the same night that one of his charges Ramson Zhuwawo was also crowned Soccer Star of the Year.
The gap-toothed coach then brewed a shocker in the New Year when he decided to stay away from the Gunners training session for the African Champions League campaign.
He later announced he had left the champions and, not even a SOS message from Gunners captain Trymore Mtisi could bring him back. The domestic football was shocked and gave him all sorts of labels.
“It’s confusing,” said the football administrator. “When he has reached the pinnacle of his career and when the sky seems to be the limit, what does he do? He throws himself back to the bottom of the pile.”
But Chunga, in an interview last week, was adamant he had made the right decision.
“I make my own decisions. I do not need a manager. I am my own manager. The problem is that some people want to treat me like trash. Handina kupusa (I’m not stupid) The truth shall always set me free. I am not a condom that you can just buy and use and throw away,” Chunga said.
Colourful language but for a man who for a decade had striven to achieve the greatest feats of all and failed, he must have known better than fluff his once-in-a-lifetime chance. He dismissed suggestions that most of his decisions were made when he is “emotional and big headed”
“I am not emotional and big headed. Handina kupusa (I am not stupid). I make decisions that I think are good for me. I do not want to be humiliated. I have a reputation to protect,” Chunga said.
To build would be more like it. Chunga has coached Hackney, Arcadia United, Dynamos, CAPS United, Black Rhinos, Shabanie Mine, Shooting Stars and Lengthens with no success in his quest for league championship honours.
The football administrator said, “He doesn’t realise that it might be another 10 years before he wins the Championship again and at 45 time is not exactly on his side.”
He turns 45 on October 17.
Chunga’s charisma has sustained him. He speaks his mind and brooks no nonsense but, in the opinion of his watchers, in this world of give and take, he must give more than he takes.
In his greatest moment of triumph on November 22 last year, Chunga remained the same old dude, with witty remarks and an air of arrogance when Gunners won the league championship. Gunners beat Dynamos 2-0 in the decider at Rufaro.
“I feel the same like I felt yesterday,” he told journalists.
“Nothing has changed. I didn’t have anything to prove to anyone.
“I am not bitter, so I did not have to silence anyone.”
This was of course not honest. Ever since he took up coaching he had had no silverware in his cupboard and the nation was beginning to wonder if the wonder boy of the football field was a dud on the bench.
Asked by journalists to comment on why it had taken him almost a decade to win the league championship, Chunga said: “It has not been easy for me. I was asking for oranges to make orange juice but some people were giving me lemons.
“Ah, ah . . . you cannot make orange juice from lemons but that was what I got,” he said.
A month later he was to terminate his marriage with Gunners maybe because he had been given lemons to make orange juice.
But there is a soft side to the “legend” as he immodestly refers to himself.
He was once voted Father of the Year at one of the affluent pre-schools attended by one of his children in Belvedere. He also is very close to his wife. On receiving his Coach of the Year award, Chunga had only one person to thank – his wife “for believing in me”.
Ten years from now his kids will peruse newspaper archives and discover that their dad was one of the most quotable coaches in the premiership but blew his only chance of achieving greatness.
BY FANUEL VIRIRI
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