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Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Sports Reporter
WITH the Soccer Stars’ awards banquet set for tonight in Harare, fans are eagerly waiting to know who the 49th recipient of the biggest individual gong on the local football scene is, amid indications that FC Platinum’s Rodwell Chinyengetere will once again hog the limelight.

Chinyengetere won the accolade last year, becoming the 48th Zimbabwe Soccer Star of the Year and carved his name among yesteryear legends, such as Zenzo Moyo, Dazzy Kapenya, Moses Chunga, Memory Mucherahohwa, Walter Chuma, Shackman Tauro, David Mandigora, George Shaya, Energy Murambadoro, Mercedes “Rambo” Sibanda, Tauya Murewa, Washington Arubi, Ephraim Chawanda and Peter Ndlovu, among others who have received it since its inception in 1969.

If he walks onto the podium again tomorrow, the Pure Platinum Play attacking midfielder, who is on his way to Absa Premiership side Baroka United, will become only the third player to win the award on two consecutive seasons after Shaya, who after his third win in 1975, retained the gong in 1976, as well as Ndlovu, who won it in 1990 and 1991.

Chinyengetere though faces stiff competition from his teammate Kevin Moyo, Triangle United’s Lameck Nhamo and Highlanders shot stopper, Ariel Sibanda.

Since inception of the awards, only three goalkeepers, the great Japhet M’parutsa (1982), Murambadoro (2003) and Arubi (2011) have won the Soccer Star award.

Sibanda was an inspirational figure in the Highlanders line-up and kept an impressive 16 clean sheets in 30 starts.

Another eagerly awaited award is that of Goalkeeper of the Year. The award has of late been mired in controversy, beginning in 2013 when Herbert Rusawo of army outfit Black Rhinos was smuggled onto the winners’ podium after organisers applied some strange formula of selecting the best goalkeeper of the year. The system saw then Dynamos goalkeeper George Chigova being robbed of the award as he “did not meet the organisers’ criteria”.

The winner of the award last year, Elvis Chipezeze, was somehow left out of the 11 Soccer Stars of the Year despite a great season in between the sticks for Chicken Inn.

So despite Sibanda making it into the top 11 this year and being the only goalkeeper on the list, it’s not a certainty that he will be named the 2018 Goalkeeper of the Year since the award was separated from the main stars’ selection list.

What boggles the mind though is that there are individual monthly awards, which also include goalkeepers, but when it comes to the final selection process, the goalkeepers are separated from infield players.

When the convenor of selectors, Steve Vickers, announced that it was time to choose the most outstanding goalkeeper of the season at last week’s selection in Harare, some could be heard suggesting the likes of Simba Chinani of Dynamos, raising serious questions as to how he failed to make the top 11 players if he is really the best goalkeeper in the land.

2018 Soccer Stars
Godknows Murwira, Michael Charamba ( Ngezi Platinum), Rodwell Chinyengetere, Kevin Moyo, Farai Madhanhanga (FC Platinum), Joel Ngodzo, Phineas Bamusi (Triangle United), Innocent Mucheneka (Chicken Inn), Lameck Nhamo (Triangle United), David Temwanjira (ZPC Kariba) and Ariel Thulani Sibanda (Highlanders)