Former footballers hail trust launch

The trust, launched in Harare last Friday, has structures across the country and plans to provide funeral services to its members. Some former soccer legends became paupers after their active days on the pitch were over, and the trust has been seen as a welcome development.

Some of the country’s former finest footballers turned to drug and alcohol abuse, while others became welfare cases due to lack of skills to engage in income-generating projects outside football.

Zimbabwe football has no pension schemes for players whose careers end for reasons such as injury, declining form or age. One of the greatest soccer players ever to grace Zimbabwe football, Peter Antonio, described the trust as a noble initiative that would help ease poverty among former football greats.

“This initiative was long overdue, but it is never too late to save the situation. Without it, football would continue to retire players into an uncertain future,” said Antonio, who now grooms young players in Kuwadzana, Harare. He had an enviable top flight soccer career which covered from being a star player to super league club coach.

As a central striker, he helped clubs like Mashonaland United (now Zimbabwe Saints), Black Aces and Darwin Textiles grab various trophies that included the BAT, Super league Champions, Chibuku and the Castle Cup.

Despite these achievements he, like dozens of other former soccer greats, does not have much to show for it. Another soccer legend, Raphael Phiri, said the trust could not have come at a more opportune time. An outstanding goalkeeper during his days with Rio-Tinto from 1977 to 1989, Phiri was a shining beacon when his team won the Chibuku and BAT trophies, and the Rothmans Shield in 1978.

He hung up his boots in 1989 and has been doing low profile youth football promotion in Kadoma since then. Trust chairperson, Francis Zimunya Nyamutsamba, said the initiative would arm the former soccer players with various skills and capacitate them to earn a living while ploughing back to communities around them.

The trust plans to rehabilitate injured players and those deemed off-form to go back to the football pitch as player, coach, administrator or match official. “Most of the former players will be given another chance in football,” said Nyamutsamba.

Downstream income generating projects to do with the provision of soccer kits and other sporting aids will also be initiated.

The trust will engage the corporate world, government and other stakeholders to help former footballers to afford basics such as shelter and education for their children.

A call was made for government to ensure that former footballers benefit from the indigenisation programme and appoint soccer legends in ministries responsible for sport, not people who know nothing about sport.