Zenzo Moyo, Thebe speaks on local derbies

The rivalry that exists between two Manchester football giants, Manchester United and Manchester City has been there before and signs are that it will remain for as long as the two clubs continue to play in the same league.

It was a football fiesta each time when Highlanders played Zimbabawe Saints in Bulawayo.

It was not so long ago that another derby was born in Bulawayo when Amazulu got promoted into the topflight league.

It became one of the fiercest derbies in this country, as some of the players that came up through the Highlanders junior ranks joined Usuthu, making it intriguing each time the two teams met.

Grudge matches took centre stage each time the two teams met and one would not want to miss this encounter.

But after watching a recent derbies, one was left convinced that local derbies no longer fit the bill.

Former Highlanders striker Zenzo Moyo had this to say: "We no longer have the 'derbies fever'. It's the character of players that we have these days. They do not treasure the colours of their teams. We used to know that if you score just one goal against Dynamos or CAPS, that goal would mean a lot in your football career.

But the small boys that we have these days, no longer treasure that. Some of them are in football for money, while players during our time did it for pride."

Moyo added that cross-pollination of players has at some stage caused this but at times helped to improve the level of the game.

"We had a scenario over the weekend where Dynamos had two players [Clive Kawinga and Washington Pakamisa] that had been offloaded by CAPS United while CAPS had one player [George Magariro] who again was offloaded by Dembare as excess baggage. On its own, this was an ingredient of a thriller.

"These players would want to prove their former bosses wrong, thereby showing us good football which did not happen at all."

Former Highlanders player or 'Alderman' Gift Lunga Junior 'Thebe' had this to say; "We played for pride. Players these days are after money. It meant a lot for us to don the black and white jersey. It was bitter to lose to Dynamos, CAPS United, Amazulu or Zimbabawe Saints. Our fans would prefer to lose to Chapungu or any other small team, rather than these four teams. It's the calibre of players that we have now. You can even see the level of our game is deteriorating by each day."