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Updated 13 June 2008
Benjamin "Alessio" Mwaruwari, commonly known as Benjani was born on the 13th August in 1978 in Bulawayo. He currently plays his football with English Premiership side Manchester City.
He was born to parents of Malawian descent but however chose to represent his nation of birth, Zimbabwe, internationally. Benjani began his career at the Lulu Rovers and University of Zimbabwe teams in Zimbabwe's Division one and Air Zimbabwe Jets in the country's Premier League in 1999.
He moved to South African club Jomo Cosmos in 1999 where he met his mentor Jomo Sono, after impressing in the friendly match between South Africa and Zimbabwe that was played to commomerate the inauguration of Thabo Mbeki as the president of South Africa.
In 2001 he was voted Footballer of the Year in South Africa alongside Siyabonga Nomvete despite only having joined the South African Premiership in the second half of the season.
Benjani moved to Grasshoppers Zürich of Switzerland on loan in 2001. In 2002, Guy Roux took him to AJ Auxerre of France. Benjani had a good run at the start, capitalising from Djibril Cissé's absence, becoming top goalscorer in Ligue 1.
Roux never played the two together, and eventually Benjani found himself surplus to requirements under Roux's successor, Jacques Santini, this time forced out of the 4-5-1 formation by Luigi Pieroni. On 5 January 2006 English Premiership club Portsmouth signed him from Auxerre for £4.1 million after Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger recommended the player to Harry Redknapp.
After failing to score in his first fourteen games for the club, Benjani finally got his first goal for Portsmouth against Wigan Athletic on 29 April 2006 in a 2-1 victory which saw Portsmouth avoid relegation from the Premier League. On 29 September 2007, Benjani scored his first hat-trick for Portsmouth in an incredible 7-4 win over Reading, which broke the record for both the number of goals scored in a Premier League match, and a league match shown on Match of the Day. After Portsmouth's visit to Wigan on 20 October, Benjani became the Premier League's top scorer.
Portsmouth boss Harry Redknapp banned Benjani from taking any further penalties after Mwaruwari missed a spot-kick in second-half injury time in a home game against West Ham United. He then made amends for his miss scoring in the 4-1 victory over Newcastle United to bring his total to eight this season. He then scored his ninth of the season, albeit it was a consolation goal in a 4-1 defeat at Liverpool. On 19 January 2008, Benjani earned his second Portsmouth hat-trick, scoring all of his side's goals in a 3-1 victory over Derby County at Fratton Park. This took his tally for the season to 12 and subsequently resulted in him revising his target for the season, which had been 10.
Benjani's goalscoring form during the first half of the 2007/08 cemented Manchester City manager Sven-Göran Eriksson's interest in the striker, and on 31 January 2008 he had a bid of around £8m accepted for the transfer of the player. However, it was revealed that Benjani had missed two successive planes to Manchester, meaning he didn't arrive at the clubs training ground until 11.10pm, leaving insufficient time to complete a move before the midnight deadline. Portsmouth had already confirmed the signing of Benjani's replacement, Jermain Defoe for a fee in the region of £9,000,000 from Tottenham Hotspur, with the impending sale of Benjani supposedly funding the majority of the transfer. (Wikipedia)
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