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On a wing and a prayer for the Boys
African Wanderers is a South African football club, rich in tradition and history. The clubs' glory days are a thing of the past and over the last few seasons Abaqulusi - as the club is known to its fans - has been drifting in and out of the first division. But while the club has been unable to hold a regular place in South Africa's elite league, the same cannot be said of many of its players and several of them are grabbing the headlines for other clubs. One of these players is striker Sibusiso Zuma, who is currently plying his trade for Danish club FC Copenhagen. In the 1997/8 season Zuma, together with Siyabonga Nomvete and Phumlani Mkhize, formed a deadly trio upfront for Wanderers and although they could do nothing to keep their team in the top flight, they grabbed football fans' imagination with their attacking style of play and the number of goals that they scored. After Wanderers had been relegated, several clubs clamoured to secure the trio's signature. Unfortunately for South African fans, who had grown accustomed to seeing the three play together, they did not all sign for the same club. Nomvete joined glamour club Kaizer Chiefs, while Mkhize and Zuma signed for Orlando Pirates. Since putting pen to paper, Zuma has not looked back. In his first season with Pirates, Zuma was capped for his country, when he came on for Benni McCarthy in the 56th minute during Bafana's 1:0 victory against Angola in a Nations Cup qualifier. He gained his second cap a few months afterwards when he again came on for McCarthy. For the second time in as many matches, Zuma ended up on the winning side when South Africa beat Egypt 2-1 in an international friendly played in Johannesburg. The striker started his first match for his country in September 2000, during South Africa's 2-1 victory over Congo in a Nations Cup qualifier. It was his fifth cap. Since then, Zuma has gone on to win 16 caps in total, scoring his first goal in South Africa's 3-0 victory over Mauritius in March last year. Arguably, his most important goal was the one he scored against Burkina Faso in Bafana's one-all draw, that guaranteed a second successive World Cup appearance for the country. Zuma's form in South Africa did not go unnoticed with European scouts and in the 1999/2000 season, he joined Danish club FC Copenhagen. There, the soft-spoken 26-year old has been just as impressive as he was in South Africa and not only has he been able to woo the fans, he has also won a number of individual awards for his performances. Zuma has benefited tremendously from playing at such a high level and this season, during Copenhagen's Champions League and UEFA Cup campaigns, he has been able to show some of the best clubs in Europe why he is considered as one of the hottest properties in Danish football. Borussia Dortmund and Lazio Rome are just two of the clubs that he has played against and twice he was voted as the man of the match, prompting speculation that he would soon be leaving the club to join a bigger team in Europe. Zuma is now hoping to use the Nations Cup as a showpiece to an even larger audience. |
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