Gift Muzadzi
| Gift Muzadzi | |
|---|---|
| Born | Gift Muzadzi October 2, 1974 |
| Nationality | Zimbabwe |
| Occupation |
|
| Employer | Dynamos Football Club |
| Spouse(s) | Makaita Angelina Mawushe-Muzadzi (Divorced) |
| Children | Tashinga, Tafadzwa, Rutendo and Tadiwa |
Gift "Umbro" Muzadzi is among the country's most celebrated footballers having had a very successful club career with Dynamos Football Club and also playing in the South African League as a goalkeeper.
Background
Muzadzi was born in Harare on 2 October 1974.[1] He got married in 1999 to Makana Angelina Mawushe but they divorced in 2015.
Muzadzi has four children Tashinga, Tafadzwa, Rutendo and Tadiwa. Of his four children, Muzadzi reckons his third born Tashinga, a midfielder, will carry on his legacy.
His firstborn Tafadzwa is into music, while the two girls Rutendo and Tadiwa are his biggest supporters.
Career
Muzadzi made his Darryn T debut in 1992, the same year he made it onto the soccer star of the year calendar before club owner Wieslaw Grabowski took him to Lech Poznan.
The goalkeeper would return to Zimbabwe to star for the country at the All Africa Games, later on joining Dynamos Football Club, with whom he won the league title and reached the CAF Champions League final in 1998.
As a budding goalkeeper, Muzadzi was inspired by the likes of England greats Peter Shilton, Spaniard Andoni Zubizarreta as well as countryman Bruce Grobbelaar.[2]
It was his desire to have a long career as his idols did, but injury cut it short as he hung his gloves soon after AFCON.
Muzadzi had a very colourful career as a goalkeeper turning out for clubs such as Zimbabwe Saints, Dynamos Football Club among others.[3]
He also played for Lech Poznań in Poland. The former Dembare goalminder was also part of the Young Warriors Squad that played in the All Africa Games in 1995.[4]
National Team Caps
Muzadzi has been capped several times for the senior national team and also was part of the 2006 Warriors team that was in Egypt for the CAF AFCON tournament under the guidance of former coach Charles Mhlauri.
Coaching career
Muzadzi was at one point employed as the goalkeeper's coach by Triangle United Football Club. He was however said to have been parted ways with the club after he had declined to receive an ultimatum in which he and the rest of the technical team had been tasked to collect maximum points from two matches they were due to play in.[5]
After leaving Triangle United Football Club he joined Dynamos as the goalkeepers' coach but later on left for Ngezi Platinum F.C. joining up with Tonderai Ndiraya.
In 2019 he was back at Dynamos Football Club together with Ndiraya after parting ways with Ngezi Platinum.
He left Dynamos at the end of the 2022 season after the club dissolved the entire technical team.
In January 2023, Muzadzi joined Real Betis Academy Zimbabwe as the goalkeeper’s coach of all age groups at the Harare centre.[6]
The name Umbro
When Dynamos goalkeepers’ coach Gift Muzadzi was a junior at Darryn T FC, he coveted the club’s hooped Umbro senior team kit.
Only the senior team had the privilege to wear the particular jersey and he came up with a plan.
Luckily for young Muzadzi, his grandmother had knitted for him a woolen jersey whose design was the same as the team jersey won by the Darryn T in the local league.
Legendary goalkeeper Japhet Mparutsa, then the team’s first-choice goalkeeper, had given him some old gloves and he decided to rip off the Umbro tag and sewed it onto his jersey.
And when he put on his jersey, which he used for training, there was raucous amusement among his peers and from that day onwards they nicknamed him “Umbro”.
Now a goalkeepers’ coach, Umbro made a return to Dynamos to assist Tonderai Ndiraya to save the club’s rocking boat and after making a positive start at the club, he found time to talk about his nickname.
“I loved the Umbro kit that Darryn T used to wear so much that when I was a junior I took an old Umbro tag from gloves I got from Mparutsa and sewed it onto my woolen jersey. That’s how I got the name Umbro,” the legendary goalkeeper said.
Arrest
Muzadzi was arrested on 29 May 2023 on allegations of planting seven mbanje plants in his garden. He allegedly admitted that the mbanje plants belonged to him. Muzadzi was not asked to plead when he appeared before Harare magistrate Yeukai Dzuda on 23 October 2023 facing charges of contravening the Dangerous Drugs Act. He was remanded on $50 000 bail.[7]
Clubs Played For
- Darryn Textiles
- Hellenic
- Dynamos Football Club
- Radomiak Radom
- Lech Poznań
- Sporting Lions Harare
- Buymore Chitungwiza
- Fidentia Rangers
- Gunners Harare
- Zimbabwe Saints Bulawayo
References
- ↑ Gift Muzadzi, Transfer Market, Published: No Date Given, Retrieved: February 18, 2015
- ↑ Munyaradzi Madzokere, [1], The Standard, Published: 19 May, 2019, Accessed: 20 April, 2020
- ↑ Gift Muzadzi, Football Teams, Published: No Date Given, Retrieved: February 18, 2015
- ↑ The safest hands: Muzadzi or Kapini?, Zimbabwe Independent, Published: May 4, 2004, Retrieved: February 18, 2015
- ↑ Oscar Rusenga and Takudzwa Chitsiga Triangle Fire Gift Muzadzi, The Herald, Published: September 25, 2014, Retrieved: February 18, 2015
- ↑ Gift Muzadzi gets new coaching job after Dynamos exit, Soccer24, 29 January 2023, Retrieved: 02 February 2023
- ↑ Prosper Dembedza, Ex-Dynamos goalie Muzadzi in court over dagga, The Herald, Published: 24 October 2023, Retrieved: 25 October 2023
