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Memory Mucherahowa

Harare Bureau
THE unfortunate events leading to the 1998 Caf Champions League final debacle in Cote d’Ivoire inspired former Dynamos captain Memory Mucherahowa to write a book he has titled “Soul of the Seven Million Dreams”.

The details of the injustice which dashed Dynamos’ golden opportunity to conquer Africa still ring fresh in Mucherahowa’s mind as DeMbare capitulated to a 4-2 defeat to ASEC Mimosas in a match that left many unanswered questions.

In the book, Mucherahowa also speaks about his difficult childhood growing up in the high density suburb of Mufakose, his family, how he got his career going in the once vibrant grassroots development programmes, his career highs and lows, his relationship with teammates at Dynamos and how he was unlucky with the Reinhard Fabish’s Dream Team project.

But what kept on nudging him was the untold story of the Champions League final.

Mucherahowa did not take part in that match which will always be remembered for the brawl before kick-off which left him unconscious after he was head-butted by some of the home team players.

Revered as the soul and heartbeat of the Glamour Boys, Mucherahowa could only follow the proceedings at the Stade Félix Houphouet-Boigny in Abidjan on radio from his hospital bed after he was rushed for medical attention leaving his troops stranded ahead of what up until today still remains the most important match in Dynamos’ history since their formation in 1963.

“Many things have happened which motivated me to think about putting my story in writing. The main issue is the Champions League.

“I have been talking about it with Ernest Chirambadare and Chamu Musanhu that people didn’t get to know the real Dynamos story during our days especially our Champions League final in Ivory Coast.

“People have questions wherever I go and you would end up having so many things to explain. There have been many theories surrounding our participation and how it ended in that final.

“Some people have suggested that we sold the game and others had been saying different things about what happened before that match when I was assaulted.

“I got a lot of encouragement from many people and at first we wanted to write a book about Dynamos with Chamu and Ernest but we realised it would cause a lot of problems because we are talking about deep things of Dynamos. Why the three of us?

“So I thought I should focus on myself. That’s how I ended up with this book.

“The other thing is that Zimbabwean football doesn’t have football records. We end up forgetting or twisting facts about the things that happened in the past.

“I remember when I first played for Dynamos we had people like Obadiah Sarupinda who would tell a lot of stories in the bus, especially on long trips, but today some of those stories have since been forgotten because there is nowhere where they were recorded.

“The title is self-explanatory, I think. As players we represented seven million supporters who had their dreams about this club. So, as players, we were the soul which meant to bring this great team together,” said Mucherahowa.