ONE of the longest serving goalkeepers in Zimbabwe’s top-flight football, Timothy Sibanda says he will be calling it a day at the end of the year and is confident that Hwange this year has a dedicated squad that could get the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League (PSL) title.
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That would be the appropriate farewell for 34-year-old Sibanda, who has been faithful to Hwange Football Club going into his 15th year with the coal miners after he started with the senior team in 1999 at the age of 19.
He has never played for any other club remaining in his home town for an entire footballing career.
“This is my last year in active football and after that I want to concentrate on my business. I have a transport company, running some passenger kombis. But we have two teams in Hwange, the Under-17 that play in the Zifa Matabeleland North Division Two and the Hwange Under-20 that play in the Zifa Southern Region Division One. After I retire, I would like to help in training goalkeepers for these teams and other young goalkeepers in the area,” Sibanda said.
“So far this year, I think the team that we have is different. It is the best team that we have had in years and my hope is that it will bring the championship to Hwange for the first time.”
Hwange are the pacesetters in the league going into round 12 with 22 points and this afternoon they will take on Chicken Inn at home at the Colliery where they are yet to lose a match this season.
Sibanda could be thrown into the fray if the young Takabva Mawaya does not make it after the veteran goalkeeper replaced him last Sunday against Dynamos when he sustained a thigh injury in the 65th minute.
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“Mawaya is being monitored and if he is not fit we have our veteran Timothy who made crucial saves against Dynamos last week,” Hwange head coach Nation Dube said during the week.
Sibanda said the only remaining goalkeeper that could have started with him way back and still active is Highlanders third-choice goalkeeper Njabulo Nyoni who played for Zimbabwe Saints back then and Marlon Jani, who went down with Motor Action, when they were relegated last season.
He spoke of two memorable matches in his footballing career in the Zimbabwe PSL.
“In 2004, we beat Highlanders at BF in the Zifa Unity Cup 5-4 in a penalty shootout after 0-0 in regulation time and I saved the first spot-kick by then Highlanders goalkeeper Tapuwa Kapini. Kapini had never missed a penalty.
“I was the hero of the day. I was man-of-the-match when we beat Dynamos in Harare 1-0 in a league match, scoring the only goal in the dying minutes after I had saved two penalties and I was named man-of-the-match in that game. I can’t remember very well, but I think it was 2005,” Sibanda said.
He started his career at Hwange juniors, played for Hard Breakers, Giant Killers and Young Pirates before he graduated into the senior team in 1999 where he was reserve to Chenjerai Dube and Witness Munkuli.
Sibanda was later with Luckson Mutanga and Edmore “MaMkhwebu” Sibanda before he was joined by Petros Mhari in the later days. All these goalkeepers have come and gone and Sibanda now trades places with the young Mawaya, but he says it’s time he calls it a day.
