THEY LIED TO US ABOUT KHAMA
THEY ganged up to tell us that he was finished.
They told us he was past his sell-by-date, they told us that he was gone and they also told us he should be consigned to football’s museum.
They told us we should relegate him to the history books and they also told us to tuck his name into the archives where we preserve the names of the legends of our national game.
They told us he belonged to the past and the game’s present, and its future, did not have space for someone like him.
And, if ever we were going to write about him, they told us that we should use a word like “was” instead of a word like “is.”
They even told us he was now a broken old man battling to run on a pair of crippled legs which have been battered by years of being abused by some of the worst savage tackles football has seen.
They also told us that he had suffered such a stunning decline he was now not even good enough to pay for unfashionable clubs like Polokwane City or Magesi in their lower leagues.
Khama Billiat, they told us, was finished. This is what the South African media and their pundits told us.
And, this is what their football officials, and fans, were led to believe in this grand propaganda blitz, laced with some elements of xenophobia, against our little football magician.
What those consumers didn’t know was that the content was coming from a collection of disinformation specialists who now appear to have been reading from the teachings of the ultimate propaganda tsar, Joseph Goebbels.
At the age of 33, these new millennium Goebbels kept telling us, Billiat was finished.
If that was true, the only consolation for Billiat would have been that fate had somehow connected the end of his successful career to the Bible because the number 33 is connected to certain promises made by God.
The 33rd time Noah’s name is used in Scripture is when God makes a special promise to him that He will not destroy the world again with a flood and seals His pledge with the sign of the rainbow.
The divine name of God, Elohim, appears 33 times in Genesis’ story of creation
The 33rd person in Jesus’ lineage from Adam is King David.
The significance of 33 is also seen in Jesus’ death, at the age of 33 which was the fulfilment of countless prophecies and promises concerning the Saviour of man.
Well, 33 is also the numeric equivalent of the word “Amen.”
So, in a way, even if those false prophecies had come true, Billiat would probably have found some comfort that the end of his career had a special connection to the bible.
Maybe that is why, when he decided to prove that all those people, who were writing their goodbyes on the tombstone of his football career, were wrong, he decided to join a football club created by a religious organisation.
Yadah (Hands to God) is a Hebrew word for PRAISE.
Maybe, in his mission to prove that all those who had pronounced his career had ended were wrong, Billiat felt he needed a spiritual connection and show that his God-given talent could not be ended by the wishes of man.
BILLIAT LIGHTS UP KAMPALA
Having found the love, from his own people, in the last few months, and the peace of mind, which was taken away from him in the final chapter of his stay in South Africa, Billiat started to find the Khama he had been looking for.
Those who believe in karma will tell you that it’s not a coincidence he was named Khama.
Back in the city where he could visit a service station at midnight without having to worry about being mugged, and buying and reading the newspaper the next morning without being blamed for the woes of Kaizer Chiefs, even on the occasions he didn’t play, Billiat started to find himself again.
He started to connect his body and soul and the doubts, which had been weighing down heavily on him as he was repeatedly targeted as if he was a dartboard, began to melt away.
We saw that special first touch gradually returning, the confidence levels started to soar and, slowly but surely, we could tell that our Khama Billiat was finding his path back into the light.
The goals started flowing but his army of critics, across the border, dismissed all this saying that he was a typical one-eyed man in the company of the blind because he was playing against poor defenders in an inferior league. Then, on Tuesday, everything changed. The Khama Billiat they were saying was finished suddenly reappeared on the big stage, not as a broken man but as a magical football star with the skills to trouble even some of the best defenders on the continent.
The continent watched as Billiat produced an eye-catching performance, which can only come from those footballers who are in its top-tier when it comes to raw talent, as he took on the Indomitable Lions defenders in a duel in which his irresistible charms kept making a mockery of their defensive powers.
They targeted him with some rough tactics, which is understandable, and that to me was a compliment to Billiat because this was an acknowledgement from their coach that the little magician still had the magic to worry the Indomitable Lions.
They tested him with those rough challenges and that he would dust himself up, every time he went down, and continue with the right was a mockery to all those in South Africa who claimed he could not withstand such tough treatment from defenders.
Khama Billiat is the best Zimbabwean footballer right now, not only among those plying their trade on the domestic front, but among every footballer around the world who carries a local passport or who calls himself a Zimbabwean.
We have had some amazing individual performances when it comes to our Warriors – Peter Ndlovu in that four-goal humiliation of Bafana Bafana, Vitalis Takawira with that hat-trick against the Indomitable Lions and Knowledge Musona with that hat-trick against Liberia.
Khama Billiat’s performance on Tuesday evening joins that special list and what even makes it different is that, unlike the others, it wasn’t produced in the comforts of homesweet-home but on foreign territory.
This was as good as it gets and that it came from a man who had been dismissed in South Africa as a spent force, and against a giant like the Indomitable Lions, made Billiat’s show very special.
If he could do all this against a team, whose first XI was drawn from all over the world, including two from the English Premiership – Mbuemo and Baleba – two from Italy’s Serie A – Tchatchoua and Anguissa – two from Turkey and others from China, France, United States and Spain, how could they even dare claim he was no longer good enough to do it against those Supa Diski defenders?
Eight years after they robbed him of the
Africa Player of the Year, for those who ply their trade on the continent, and relegated him into second place in the vote he should have won comfortably, Billiat reminded everyone he was still a class act.
The award went to his then teammate at Mamelodi Sundowns – goalkeeper Denis Onyango who polled 252 votes.
Billiat had to settle for second place after polling 228 votes while Rainsford Kalaba of Zambia finished third.
Those who believe in karma will probably find it interesting that Khama’s masterclass on Tuesday was delivered in the very stadium which Onyango calls his spiritual home.
There is no doubt that the Ugandan fans had no issues with Onyango being crowned the winner of that prestigious award in 2016.
There is no doubt that the majority of them were also supporting another goalkeeper, Andre Onana, on Tuesday night because of their Manchester United connection.
There is also no doubt that the majority of them also left the stadium in agreement that Khama Billiat was a special talent and they probably understood why we cried foul when he lost that award eight years ago.
The only negative is that we didn’t win a game that was there to be won because we don’t have that killer instinct and we go into such battles trying to avoid defeat rather than win the match.
How do we celebrate a draw in a game in which we had 17 goal attempts, including five shots on target, while the Indomitable Lions had NO shot on target the whole game?
This is why all this elevation of Michael Nees into some sort of Messiah, simply because he has started his campaign with two draws, and no goal conceded, irritates me in a big way.
We have already started to conveniently forget that this was Nees’ SEVENTH match in charge of an African team in either a World Cup/Nations Cup qualifier and, so far, he has only one win, three defeats and three draws.
We have already forgotten that Brito also started with two draws against Rwanda and Nigeria and that we have not won any of our last six World Cup/AFCON qualifiers should be worrying us.
Instead we have started going crazy about Neesball based on two draws, including one against a Cameroon side which needed the Offside of the Century, to beat Namibia 1-0 at home, last week.
Admittedly, Nees has brought some shape and discipline and it felt refreshing to see a coach who knows the importance of sending in a defender, in the final minutes, to defend a point rather than one who sent a defender, in the last minute, when we were two goals down.
But, there is need for caution and his treatment of Tawanda Chirewa, who was disappointed when he was substituted against Kenya, was not only foolish but both self-destructive and dictatorial.
Tawanda is an ambitious and talented young man, who is likely to make mistakes, and should be nursed rather than outlawed when we need him to help us win matches.
I’m pretty sure if Tawanda had started against Cameroon, he would have given us the support Billiat needed for us to unlock the Indomitable Lions and win that game.
Salah told off Klopp when he was substituted but the great German found a way to deal with the fallout without compromising Liverpool’s success.
It’s something Nees should learn from his countryman and if we start treating the coach as if he is a Messiah, simply because he has dropped four of the six points that were on offer, then we are just giving him the licence to make the same foolish mistakes like leaving Tawanda out.
Tawanda Chirewa is the future of our Warriors and we should help him rather than destroy him.When he starred against Bafana Bafana, they were quick to say that Kaizer Chiefs should sign him as quickly as possible.
What they didn’t know was that he was already on the books of Wolves in England.
These are the same people who lied that Khama Billiat was finished.
To God Be The Glory!
Text Feedback: WhatsApp: Email:
0772545199 0772545199 robsharuko@gmail.com
You can also interact with me on the ZTV football programme, Game Plan, where I join the legendary Charles “CNN” Mabika on Wednesdays