EVER HEARD OF THE POWER OF THE CHURCH OF MARADONA AND IT’S 800 000 MEMBERSHIP ACROSS THE WORLD? . . . That’s the power of football, yet just 15 years later, we’re forgotten our heroes

SHARUKO ON SATURDAY
FOR them, it only happened once, right on their doorstep in the glorious summer of ’66 when they won the only World Cup they have had the privilege to host, after beating their wartime foes Germany at Wembley in a final pregnant with both sporting and political undertones.

But repeated failure in a dozen other tournaments that have followed — spread over almost half-a-century in which the best they have come to glory was a painful penalty shoot-out semi-final defeat at the hands of the same Germans at ltalia ’90 — has not diluted powerful memories of the only time they were kings of the world.

Even though their failure represents the worst performance by a global football power at the World Cup — with the Germans winning three times, Brazil winning three times, Italy winning twice and Argentina winning twice — during their flirtation with barrenness, they have defiantly refused to let that embarrassment dilute memories of the year they partied as world champions.

That was in 1966, Geoff Hurst scored a Wembley hat-trick and they eventually ran out comfortable 4-2 winners after a gripping battle which spilled into extra-time with those two hours, during their fleeting romance with greatness, bringing their country to a virtual halt as it followed the Wembley drama.

They are the English and long before television brought their footballers like Gary Lineker, Wayne Rooney, Alan Shearer, Rio Ferdinand, Paul Scholes, Frank Lampard, Steve Gerrard and company into regular guests to showcase their talents in our living rooms week-in-and-week-out, there was a generation that won the World Cup.

For all their repeated failures on the big stage, since then, you have to give it to these English when it comes to honouring the memory of their heroes — both the living and the dead — and defiantly refusing to let time wipe away memories of the sights and sounds of that glorious summer afternoon, more than half-a-century ago, when they had the honour of calling themselves world champions.

That’s why on July 30 2016, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of that triumph, hat-trick hero Hurst was reunited with the very ‘66 World Cup final ball as part of the year-long celebrations as they remembered, and celebrated, a time when they ruled the world.

They even have a ’66 World Cup exhibition arena at Wembley and no matter what has happened since then, and no matter what will happen from now onwards, these English guys will never forget the football heroes who transformed their nation into world champions.

You even get to know the official attendance that day at Wembley, 96 924 fans, that it would have cost a fan, in today’s value, about £483 to get the cheapest ticket to watch all the matches England played in that tournament right up to the final, and you can even hear the actual voice of BBC commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme declaring in his commentary, “some people are on the pitch . . . they think it’s all over . . . it is now, it’s four,’’ as Hurst powered home his team’s fourth goal in the final minute.

Two years ago, on that occasion of the 50th anniversary of their World Cup triumph, the heroes of that campaign gathered at the Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington, London, in the very same room where the draw for the tournament had been conducted and where they celebrated after conquering the globe.

And there were some intriguing tales of bravery, like the story of England captain Bobby Moore being diagnosed with testicular cancer just months before the tournament, his wife Tina — pregnant with their first kid — pleading with the surgeon not to tell him of his condition because “it was a death sentence in those days,’’ and having one of his testicles being removed.

Somehow, against all odds, Bobby recovered, a few months before the World Cup, to take his place as the leader of his country in that historic adventure in which they conquered the globe.

Bobby eventually died of bowel and liver cancer in 1993, aged 51, his son Dean had issues with alcohol and died in 2011 when he was just 43, but at least, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his finest hour at Wembley in ’66, Tina — who now lives in the United States — was there to tell their story.

And Hugh Dennis, who was one of the artistes who helped compile a song “They Think It’s Over,’’ borrowed from BBC commentator Wolstenholme’s iconic words in his commentary of that match, to celebrate 50 years of that English World Cup triumph, says that success story changed football in their country.

“England winning the World Cup in 1966 is the event which kick-started a life-long love of playing football,’’ he recalled on that 50th anniversary celebration.

“For the country as a whole it was the event that restored national pride — forget the economy, forget the fact the Empire was in its death throes, we had won the World Cup, and England was on top of the world again. We had the Beatles, we had the mini-skirt, and now we had the Jules Rimet Trophy.’’

IN NAPLES, JUST LIKE IN ARGENTINA, THERE IS THE  CHURCH OF MARADONA

In the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires, they even have the Church of Maradona where, in their prayer, they say, “In the name of La Tota, the mother, and Don Diego, the father, the fruit of their love, the football god blesses you all — Diego — Diego. Die-goooooo!

“Our Diego, who art on the pitches, hallowed be thy left hand, thy magic comes, make your goals remembered on Earth as they are in Heaven . . .”

For this cult, Maradona is some form of Messiah and two years ago they came from all over the world to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the year they say he touched the heavens with his destruction of England in that quarter-final in Mexico, with the help of the “Hand of God” of course, en-route to guiding Argentina to their second World Cup triumph.

There are an estimated 800 000 members of this cult, spread across 55 countries around the world, and Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino is also a member.

Of course, given his run with drugs and other vices, and the way he conned England from a possible World Cup semi-final with that “Hand of God”, Maradona is a representative of evil as much as he is of genius among some Englishmen, including football writers.

“Comparisons with Lionel Messi are futile — Maradona belonged to a wild, violent game unrecognisable to modern players and stands alone in football’s glorious outlaw age,’’ argues journalist Barney Ronay in The Guardian newspaper.

“The ghost of peak El Diego has been flickering in the background for more significant reasons too. It is 30 years this week since Maradona’s career apex, his first Serie A title victory with Napoli the season after Mexico ‘86.

“It was a triumph crowned with strangely primitive celebrations in Naples, where effigies were dragged through the streets, fireworks popped all summer and Maradona himself, gorged on success and idolatry, began to drift for the first time into the arena of the unwell.

“There is no real point of comparison here. Maradona’s world is all pain and ragged edges, a game of blood and courage that feels utterly removed from the sealed edges, endless scrutiny and managed spaces of modern football.

“It is simply another sport, another life entirely. Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are, at least, present in the same timeline, pressed against the same surfaces, subject to the same pressures, a consumer choice between competing forms of greatness.

“Maradona, meanwhile, stands alone, giant of a lost world that was neither better nor worse. But which remains — even peering back down that grainy, fond lens — gloriously ragged and gloriously undimmed.’’

Try telling that to the people of Naples and they will certainly chase you out of their city because, to them, Diego represents greatness and last year they marked 30 years of becoming Italian champions, for the first time, with Maradona the conductor of their orchestra.

They even released a documentary about Maradona dubbed, “The god of Naples”, for helping them tame the dominance of the north of the country which houses the likes of AC and Inter Milan, Roma and Juventus.

Last year — which marked 30 years after their first championship in ’87, the people of Naples remembered a great Argentine superstar who came to their town and transformed them into champions of Italy.

SADLY, FOR US, HISTORY  MEANS NOTHING

Last week, I was invited to attend the launch of the $1 million NetOne sponsorship deal with Dynamos, Highlanders and CAPS United and as the sponsors unveiled the kits which the three giants will use, sourced from China, I was left wondering about how much we belittle history and the lessons that it provides for our future in this game.

I wondered why it never dawned on anyone involved in that deal that this was a special year for all the three giants and that should be reflected on their jerseys, with a special commemoration badge, to remind everyone that this was the 55th year of DeMbare’s founding back in ’63 and this was the 45th year of the Green Machine’s founding in ’73?

Why no-one in this deal thought it would be special to remember this was the 25th anniversary of the year Highlanders won the maiden Premiership in ’93, after the top-flight clubs’ divorce from the day-to-day control of ZIFA, and it would be good to remember that success story with a special commemorative badge on that kit?

But, before we even blame the sponsors and their partners who are providing this kit which is already attracting its fair share of criticism, in terms of its quality (or it is the lack of it) on social media circles, maybe we should ask the leaders of these giants why they seem to be in a hurry to also forget their history as if it means nothing.

Maybe, among the DeMbare bosses no one knows that this is the 55th anniversary of the Glamour Boys founding and it is also the 55th anniversary of their first taste of what it means to be champions, back in ’63, the foundation on which their serial championship-winning stories which transformed them into the country’s most successful and biggest football club were built.

They all seem to have been born, in ’67, when Cat Stevens released his smash-hit song “The First Cut Is The Deepest,” with a number of other artists, including Rod Stewart doing their cover versions, and they should have a rough understanding of its meaning to honour the work of those pioneers who, 55 years ago, didn’t only form this team, but won its first championship.

Somehow, they seem all blinded to the reality that this is the 35th anniversary of the year when they became the first local side to win four straight league championships with their triumph in ’83, and there is need to celebrate the achievements of those great men whose work helped in building this legend about DeMbare.

Somehow, they seem all blinded to the reality that this is the 20th anniversary of the year when their team came within 90 minutes of being crowned champions of Africa and, two decades later, they seemingly want memories of that adventure forgotten yet that was the closest they came to purity.

What are the chances, then, in such an environment do the heroics of David Mandigora and his men — 10 years ago, to reach the semi-finals of the Champions League, in what The British Guardian newspaper called would have been the greatest sporting success story around the world, had they gone on to become African champions against a background of the economic challenges in this country back then — have of being remembered and celebrated by these guys on the 10th anniversary of that journey?

The clubs are not alone in this mess of discarding our history, the game’s history, because ZIFA also are found wanting because one would have expected the Association to 15th anniversary of the year when our Warriors finally came of age and ended years of failure by qualifying for their first Nations Cup finals.

Lazarus Muhoni scoring that priceless winner against Mali; King Peter scoring the only goal in the victory over Eritrea; Peter and Adam scoring the goals in the 3-1 win over Seychelles; Adam scoring our goal in the shock 1-2 loss in Eritrea; the gallant rearguard show in the goalless draw in Bamako against Mali and Peter scoring twice in the 2-0 win over Eritrea in our final qualifier on July 5, 2003, for the 13 points that gave us second place on the table, with same number of points as winners Mali, by virtue of an inferior goal difference.

Then, the following day, Gabon, with nothing to fight for, but their pride, somehow beating Sierra Leone 2-0 in Libreville through goals by Bruno Zita Mbanangoye and Nde Minsta to ensure the West Africans could not get to 13 points and, with that, handing us one of the tickets to the Nations Cup finals by virtue of being one of the best runners-up.

The impromptu street parties which erupted across Harare, as word filtered through that Sierra Leone had fallen in Gabon, the University Zimbabwe students who boarded their buses and came to Raylton Sports Club — where the coach Sunday Chidzambwa hangs out — for those grand celebrations and the celebrations within the Zimbabwean community in England, where I was at the time, all providing iconic sights and sounds.

And just 15 years later, we seem to have forgotten all that, forgotten those heroes who made it all possible and showed us the way, proved that we can dine with the best on the continent and we would never, again, be mocked as the nation that always collapses at the final hurdle.

Sooner, rather than later, our kids will start asking us, ‘daddy, who is Peter Ndlovu, who was Moses Chunga,’ and we shouldn’t blame them for that.

To God Be The Glory

Come on Warriors!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Khamaldinhooooooooooooooooo!

Text Feedback — 0772545199, WhatsApp Messenger — 0772545199. Email — [email protected], Skype — sharuko58

Chat with me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter @Chakariboy, interact with me on Viber or read my material in The Southern Times or on www.sportszone.co.zw. You can also interact with me on the informative ZBC weekly television football magazine programme, Game Plan, where I join the legendary Charles “CNN” Mabika and producer Craig “Master Craig’’ Katsande every Monday night at 21.15pm.

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