TWELVE years after Knowledge Musona last pulled on the gold and black of Kaizer Chiefs, his shadow still looms over the South African Premier Soccer League.
Those he left behind do not merely recall him. They speak with the hushed reverence usually reserved for ghost stories.
To an entire generation of defenders, he remains the finest, most ruthless striker to grace the top flight in the past decade. A hitman with a boyish grin and a lethal edge.
Having carved out a career across the top divisions of Germany, Belgium, and Saudi Arabia, the former Warriors captain returned home last season to spearhead Scottland.
He guided the ambitious newcomers to a fairy-tale Castle Lager Premier Soccer League title in their debut top-flight campaign.
Yet, it is his legendary spell in South Africa that cemented his mythos, leaving former teammates inspired, opponents haunted, and an entire league wondering how one man could make devastating finishing look so nonchalant.
Former Kaizer Chiefs and Bafana Bafana forward Lehlohonolo "Major" Majoro credits the Zimbabwean with shattering his own perception of professionalism.
The pair shared a dressing room under Serbian coach Vladimir "VV" Vermezovi, where Musona’s terrifying intensity in routine training sessions proved an immediate wake-up call.
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"You know the thing with Knowledge Musona, when I first got to Chiefs, during the VV era we would treat training, you know, like it's training."
Majoro recalled on a popular podcast Diski Dine, still visibly impressed.
"But with Knowledge, from the moment he enters the field, he competes like he's playing a proper match. No wonder he went as far as he went."
"Those are the habits that I stole from him. I said like, oh, he works extra hard. In small-sided games at training, he would score left and right. What I also liked about him, he was forever smiling. That's why they call him the smiling assassin," Majoro added.
"Knowledge is one striker who really made me up my game from the onset. I told myself if I want to play, I needed to be on point."
That eerie, unshakeable composure reached its zenith on the cauldron-like stage of the Soweto derby.
Majoro fondly remembers a 3-1 tearing-apart of Orlando Pirates, where Musona bagged a brace and forced an own goal with ice in his veins.
"His decision-making has always been on point," Majoro said, painting a picture of a master at work.
"I remember this other game against Orlando Pairates. He scored a brace in that game. For him, the way he was so comfortable was unbelievable. For the third goal, he poked the ball from the last defender Roi Mahamutsa. And then goalkeeper Moeneeb Josephs came out and he rounded the keeper.
“The ball wasn't in the net. He still had an opportunity to look at the linesman first and then finish it off.
“I was like, eh? And mind you, this is a derby. That's when I realised this guy is very confident. He's so comfortable, a quick thinker.
“All you want as a striker is to first see that ball at the back of the net and then look at the lineman after. So that, for me, really made me believe that if he can do it at that stage, he can do it everywhere else."
Musona’s trophy cabinet at Naturena glistened early. He led Chiefs to two Telkom Knockout titles and utterly dominated individual accolades.
His 2010/11 campaign remains peerless.
Twenty goals in all competitions, the Premier Soccer League Rookie of the Year, the Lesley Manyathela Golden Boot, Telkom Knockout Player of the Tournament, Chiefs’ Players' Player of the Season, and an absurd four successive Player of the Month awards from September to December 2010.
Even during a second stint on loan from Augsburg, he plundered 16 goals in 25 starts, sealing his status as a club icon.
For opposition defenders, however, Musona wasn't a hero. He was a walking nightmare.
Former Ajax Cape Town and Orlando Pirates defender Lizo Mjempu spoke like a survivor recounting trauma.
"Yoh, that guy from Zimbabwe, Musona. He was trouble," Mjempu confessed without a shred of pride. "Musona killed us, ."
Mjempu recalled one particular afternoon when Ajax’s technical team thought they had solved the puzzle by tasking French defender Derek Decamps with a man-marking job on Musona.
"When Musona saw the white guy, he took him to the cleaners,” he recalled.
“ They beat us thoroughly. I remember telling my roommate afterwards that I'm afraid to switch on the TV because people are probably making fun of us."
Former Orlando Pirates captain Lucky Lekgwati remembered the psychological torment inflicted by his own teammates leading up to derby day.
"During training, they would say 'hey Lucky, Musona is coming!' That thing motivated me to work extra hard, having extra training sessions. But he always got the better of me," Lekgwati admitted.
"In this other game, we lost 3-1 and I made two mistakes against him and he capitalised to score. People judged me harshly after that. They thought I was a bad defender. The next derby, we lost in the Telkom final and who made the blunders? It wasn't me. He scored again in that match. Let's be honest, Musona was just unplayable.
"I would think about him all the time in the buildup to the derby. Everyone would be talking about him. You go to a press conference, and everyone would be like, 'so you are playing against Kaizer Chiefs, what can you say about Musona?"
Former Bafana Bafana captain Thulani Hlatshwayo, who fought pitched battles against Musona across stints at Ajax Cape Town and Bidvest Wits named the Zimbabwean as his ultimate nemesis.
"Knowledge Musona, eish. I don't want to think much about him. He was trouble," Hlatshwayo shook his head.
"He was strong, left and right. Strong in the air, big and very quick as well. We know he was right footed but he would still score with his left foot. We were like, what kind of person is this?"
Podcast co-host and Pirates icon Happy Jele couldn't help but jump in with a laugh: "Musona was a nightmare. We all had trouble with him. We need some 'Musona counselling,'" he quipped.
"Because all the defenders we have had here on the show are all complaining about him. We must invite him to explain how he did it."
After leaving Chiefs in 2015, Musona returned to Europe, spending six years in Belgium with Oostende, Anderlecht, Lokeren, and Eupen, before a four-year stint in Saudi Arabia with Al-Tai, Al-Riyadh, and Al-Okhdood.
Now leading the charge at league champions Scottland, the veteran's appetite for goals remains unquenched. Scottland currently sit atop the domestic table twenty seven matches in, with Musona contributing 10 goals — just one behind teammate Khama Billiat.
As Scottland gear up for their maiden CAF Champions League campaign against Eswatini’s Nsingizini Hotspurs next week, continental defenders are about to discover what South Africa learned a decade ago... the 'Smiling Assassin' never loses his aim.)
