Chidzambgwa now walks with a crutch after 1983 injury returns to haunt him
By Auther Chimbgwa
Dynamos legend and coach Sunday Chidzambgwa now walks with a crutch after a crude tackle he suffered during a 1983 football match resulted in an injury that has returned 42 years later to haunt him.
Then known as Sunday Marimo, Chidzambgwa starred as a fearless centre-back while playing for Dynamos during the 1970s and into the early 1980s.
Then came the career-ending tackle he suffered whilst Dynamos was playing against Rio Tinto at Eiffel Flats in Kadoma back in 1983.
Also read: Sunday Chidzambgwa speaks on Dynamos’ relegation worries
Revisiting the incident in an interview with Zimstar News, Chidzambgwa recalls how Joseph Zulu dug his studs onto his knee, resulting in him suffering two fractures.
Whilst the veteran gaffer recovered up to a point of walking normally, the injury has of late deteriorated to the point that doctors prescribed him with one crutch, which now assists him to walk.
“It was a bad injury which affected my career as I had to hang my boots thereafter because of the tackle,” recalls Chidzambgwa, now coach for FC Porto Academy, a Zimbabwe junior team subsidiary of Portuguese football giants FC Porto.
To add salt to injury, Chidzambgwa said Zulu did not apologise for the tackle, which got him red-carded during the match.
Chidzambgwa was detained for three days at Parirenyatwa Hospital for treatment.
To try and atone for their player’s misfortune, Dynamos sent him to Brazil for a month-long coaching course in 1984 where he was later awarded a certificate.
Chidzambgwa returned to the South American country for another month-long coaching course in 1986.
He graduated with another certificate which ushered him into a full time coaching where he would rewrite his story as a history making coach for both Dynamos and the Zimbabwe senior men’s team.
Among some of his achievements was the time he took Dynamos to the final of the CAF Champions League against ASEC Mimosas of Côte d’Ivoire in 1998 and when he became the first Zimbabwean coach to take the national team to the Africa Cup of Nations in 2004.
