Skipper Benjani quits international football

By Robson Sharuko

Harare — BENJANI MWARUWARI finally ended a decade of a nightmare in the trenches of international football when he announced his retirement from the Warriors, just two games into the 2012 Nations Cup qualifying campaign, to concentrate on what remains of a club career that is also coming to an end.

The 32-year-old forward, who captained the Warriors in the goalless draw against Cape Verde at the National Sports Stadium on Sunday, told The Herald yesterday that he had finally decided to retire from international football and will not be available for selection for the remaining matches.

The final image of Benjani in a Warriors’ shirt will be his short walk from the field, after being pulled out by caretaker coach Norman Mapeza in the 65th minute, to be replaced by Edward Sadomba for the remaining 25 minutes of a game the home side needed to win.

The deafening roar that followed his replacement, with the fans seemingly in agreement that he needed to be pulled out, must have hurt the skipper who has struggled to build a steady romantic relationship with supporters who have always believed that he has never produced his best form for the Warriors.

A combination of injuries, which ruled him out of the 2004 Nations Cup finals, and his failure to find the goals that the fans demanded from him in that golden Warriors’ jersey, tainted the relationship between the skipper and the supporters.

His case was not made any easier by the fact that, as skipper, he stepped into the big shoes of legendary Warriors’ striker Peter Ndlovu who had led the team from the front, scoring goals and providing some of the lasting images for the fans.

That Ndlovu was the driving force behind the Warriors’ qualification for both the 2004 and 2006 Nations Cup finals only added to pile the pressure, and the weight of expectations, on Benjani when he replaced him as skipper.

And when Zimbabwe failed to qualify for both the 2008 and 2010 Nations Cup finals, Benjani found himself being picked out for criticism by fans who wanted more from the player who had the biggest profile in their national team.

On Sunday, after trying hard with little rewards, he was pulled out after 65 minutes and, in the ensuing painful post-mortem of the two points that we donated to charity that day, Benjani decided the time had come to walk away from the Warriors.

“After the game I went to speak with Norman (Mapeza) and thanked him for giving me the chance to play in the game against Cape Verde and that I was sorry we couldn’t do enough to win the game and get the maximum points that we wanted,” said Benjani.

“I told him that I had come to the end of the road, in as far as my international career was concerned, and from now onwards I would not be available for selection.

“Maybe I would have loved to move away in better circumstances, when the fans and everyone was in a good mood, after we had either qualified for the Afcon finals or played very well at the tournament.

“But there are things that we can’t change and we have to live with the fact that I left the ship when a lot of people were still in pain after we dropped the points from a game that I felt we should have won if we had played to our capacity.”

Benjani said Mapeza advised him to take his time rather than make decisions in the heat of the moment.

“Norman said that he didn’t think that quitting the national team right now, given the circumstances, was the right thing for me to do as captain,” said Benjani.

“He said that I needed time to cool down, think about it, and then make a decision that was not being influenced by what had happened at the ground.

“He also went to talk with Madinda (Ndlovu) and Madinda was also speaking the same language saying that I needed time to consider my decision. But I have made up my mind and I believe that this is the right time and new players have to come and play their part in the national team.”

Benjani revealed that he had been thinking about retiring from the international game for a long time now but kept pushing himself, all the time, because he felt he still had some unfinished business with the Warriors.

“I am 32 years now and I am coming to the end of my career, both at club level and with the national team, because you cannot play forever in this game,” said Benjani.

“When you get to my age, there are options that come to mind because it’s hard to balance the challenges of international football and club football.

“I still have a few more years playing club football, but I feel that I have done my part, for my country, and it’s sad that things just didn’t work out the way we wanted and probably I didn’t get the number of goals that the supporters wanted me to score.

“Just like the fans, I wanted to win things with the Warriors and I always tried very hard. Even when luck was not on my side at times, and I understand the criticism in some quarters because that is the way football is and you take the good with the bad.

“I was fully committed to the team and I went out of my way, on a number of occasions, to try and get things done because I had a passion for the Warriors and I wanted us to succeed.”

The Blackburn Rovers forward said he did not bear any grudges with anyone.

“When you have played the game as long as I have done you get to understand criticism and you live with it and I don’t have any problem with anyone, including the fans who were not happy with me, because I understand their frustrations,” said Benjani.

“The point is that we all want to win and the fans pay their hard-earned cash to buy the tickets and support the national team and all they ask for is for us to win and, when that doesn’t happen, it’s only natural that they react that way. It’s the same everywhere and even in England, you will see that Wayne Rooney, who is a bigger star than me was also booed by his national team’s fans because they were not happy with his form.

“I don’t look at the negatives, but prefer to look at the positives and I think we have lovely and passionate fans, who like their national team so much, and I will forever be proud that I was given the chance to captain my nation and be supported by these fans.

“I salute all of them and all I can do is probably say that it’s sad we can’t complete the remainder of the games together but, wherever I am, I will continue to support the Warriors and I hope that they will make it to the finals in two years’ time.

“We have a good team, excellent young players too, but we just don’t get it right in terms of our preparations and we shot ourselves in the foot ahead of the game against Cape Verde through all the negative things that were happening in our camp.”

Benjani said the Warriors needed to plan better for their matches if they are to transform their potential into a ticket to the big tournaments.

“The ball is in our court and it all depends on how we are going to handle it, but what is very clear is that we are not doing the right things for our national team and we are letting the fans down badly,” said Benjani.

“Rather than focus on the game against Cape Verde, you will find that the players didn’t know who was going to be their coach until Friday, just two days before the game, and that is not healthy in a camp.

“But we now have about five months before the next game and if we can’t sort our problems during that time, then we are doomed because it means that we will never sort them out.

“We have the talent to play at the Nations Cup finals all the time but we have to get some of the basic things, which go hand-in-hand with a professional approach to preparations for the game, right before we start to dream again.”

The dreadlocked forward burst onto the scene, in the colours of the Zimbabwe Under-23 team battling for a place at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, where he led the line of attack with distinction as a pacy forward under the guidance of Dutch coach Clemens Westerhoff.

He was simply irresistible during that period, destroying defences with his sheer pace, including an unforgettable performance in a 2-0 win over Nigeria at the National Sports Stadium where he scored both goals for his Young Warriors.

That Class of Young Warriors came within 90 minutes of qualifying for a place at the Sydney Olympics, needing just a draw in their final game in Nigeria, but they were blown away — again in controversial circumstances — in a 0-4 defeat for Westerhof and his boys.

But his graduation into the senior Warriors didn’t produce the glut of goals that the nation demanded from their star forward and, when he was injured ahead of the 2004 Nations Cup finals, it started a difficult time for Benjani in the colours of the national team.

He played at the 2006 Nations Cup finals, but in a big game against Senegal, missed a big chance that could have turned the tie on its head although a goal, in the final match against Ghana, helped the Warriors to come within minutes of making the quarter-finals.

The 2008 Nations Cup campaign never got underway, after a 0-1 defeat in Malawi in their first game, and Benjani played four of the six matches, under Valinhos, during the disastrous 2010 World Cup/Nations Cup campaign.