BY MUNYARADZI MADZOKERE
IT took long, but what matters the most is that it happened eventually.
Manica Diamonds defender Talent Chamboko finally achieved his lifelong dream of representing the country when made his Warriors debut at the African Nations Championships (Chan) finals on January 20 against Burkina Faso in Cameroon.
Chamboko was donning the national team jersey for the first at the ripe age of 30, probably approaching the twilight of his career. The scoreline was a 3-1 defeat at the hands of the Burkinabes, which effectively ended the country’s hopes in the competition.
But looking back, Chamboko, popularly known as Fadiga, after the Senegalese midfield star Khalilou Fadiga from the 2002 World Cup, is grateful for the opportunity and experience.
His friends though say he played like the Senegalese icon back in the day.
Having missed out in the initial provisional squad, Fadiga gate-crashed into the team following a friendly match between his club and the Warriors in December.
“We played well as a team that morning against the Warriors. Individually I did extremely well and I scored the winner in the match. The next day I was called by the manager to join the other players in camp,” Fadiga recalled.
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Fadiga had starred in the Manicaland side’s 3-2 triumph over the Warriors in a friendly match in the lead-up to the Chan finals and whatever he did was enough to impress coach Zdravko Logarusic.
At Chan, Chamboko had to sit out the tournament opener against hosts Cameroon in which Zimbabwe lost 1-0 before he was summoned for the second group encounter.
“I was very happy with the call-up and putting on the national team jersey is every player’s dream. At my age I still had hopes that one day I would play for my country and it came to pass so I am delighted,” the 30-year-old defender said.
It has been quite a football journey for Fadiga, who began his career in the Dynamos junior structures.
And since then he has been quite nomadic moving to Hwange and then Ngezi Platinum Stars and ZPC Kariba.
Fadiga is currently in the books of Mutare-based side Manica Diamonds.
His Warriors cap has made him confident that he can still achieve another of his dreams.
“My dream is to play for foreign-based teams and what happened to me recently made me believe that everything is possible. I would also like to play for the national team again before I call it quits,” Chamboko said.
The Chitungwiza-born and bred star pleaded for the return of football, highlighting some of the challenges they face as footballers.
“We have faced a lot of challenges as footballers as a result of the failure to resume local football. “We are not getting enough money to look after our families, which is the biggest challenge. We are just hoping that football will be back soon so we can have our livelihood back,” he said.
