AFTER years of entertaining football fans in various parts of the world, Zvenyika Makonese, Gilbert Mushangazhike, Shingi Kawondera, and many others, should have been living in a lap of luxury with top-of-the-range cars and owning houses some would only dream of.
insidesport with MICHAEL KARIATI
At the age of 40, Makonese should not have been fighting for a jersey at Castle Lager Premier Soccer League club Shabanie Mine, nor should Mushangazhike, now 42 years, have been moving around the streets searching for a coaching job, or a club to play for.
Instead, just like Jomo Sono in South Africa or Mohammed Kallon in Sierra Leone, they should have been proud owners of their own football teams, directing play from the bench as coaches or controlling proceedings from the boardroom.
Some might argue that the Zimbabweans did not make as much money as Sono or Kallon did. However, the point remains that most of them went to play outside the country during the days of the Zimbabwean dollar and should have capitalised on the exchange rate then.
The trio of Makonese, Kawondera, and Mushangazhike, are just a few of the many examples of Zimbabwean footballers who have gone to play outside the country’s borders, only to come back home with nothing to show for all those years in foreign lands.
Just like they did upon a visit to Zimbabwe, the players —even when outside the country —were content with showing off their cars and moving from one night spot to the other, spending all their earnings, and forgetting that there is life after football.
Whether it was excitement over the huge figures of money they were earning that is something else, but the truth is that they now have nothing to show for all those years spent in foreign lands because of the manner they handled their finances.
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That these former football stars are now living in abject poverty —and some of them reduced to “beggars” — has also brought into question the role of the so-called football managers who are in the headlines on a daily basis.
Are the intermediaries/managers giving the players the right advice or are they just there to make a quick buck in contractual discussions and then forget about what happens to the player afterwards.
Isn’t it the role of the manager to oversee the players’ welfare including their investments and finances, as happens with other players in other parts of the world?
There are, however, a few who have made the best out of their football careers. Norman Mapeza is a proud owner of properties in the plush suburb of Glen Lorne in Harare and in Msasa Park, while Edward Sadomba has properties scattered all over the city of Harare.
Although what Peter Ndlovu owns is still a subject of debate or is unknown, Benjani Mwaruwari is understood to own properties in Zimbabwe, South Africa, France and England, while Tinashe Nengomasha is living a decent life, and is also a proud owner of properties in Zimbabwe.
While the success story of the likes of Mapeza and Mwaruwari is enough to encourage a growing band of youngsters who have taken up football, some of those still in action have not learnt from the sad stories of the other former football stars, and continue to spend their earnings with reckless abandon.
They still dream of continued earnings through coaching after football, but forget that coaching jobs are no longer easily available. This is due to the fact that every former footballer today wants to coach the team he once played for and competition for those jobs is now stiffer than acquiring a first 11 team place.
However, the sore sight of suffering former Zimbabwean football stars, and in contrast, the wealth that the likes of Mapeza and Mwaruwari have acquired over the years, is a lesson for future generations that one needs to make the best out of his career, instead of spending money like there is no tomorrow.
There are a number of Zimbabwean footballers who are turning on the style in various parts of the world and the advice for them is that the time to invest in the future is now, not tomorrow.
Unlike in boxing, where a 42- year-old George Foreman could come out of retirement, win the world title and make money then go back to retirement, football is a sport where there is no way back from retirement. Once your time is over, it is over.
That is a lesson that Zimbabwean footballers should learn.
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