Will Kadewere be the player to catch Ndlovu's Warriors goal record?

Legendary Zimbabwe striker Peter Ndlovu's international goal scoring record was expected to stand for a long time when he set it in 2005, and now almost 17 years have gone by without any other player getting near to it. Current international forward Knowledge Musona, who represents AL-Tai in the Saudi Premier League, is currently in second place in the all-time list and will fancy his chances of beating the record, but whether he does or not, there are a number of younger players who will have their eye on Ndlovu's total as a long-term target. One of them is Tino Kadewere, a tricky forward who has been impressive in a difficult season for his club. The sports experts at oddschecker, who provide tips and analysis on all major sports, predicted that Kadewere's Lyon side would reach the latter stages of the Europa League before this season started, which they did with the Zimbabwean forward making 5 appearances on Lyon's journey to the quarter-finals.

Remembering Ndlovu
Younger African football fans may only recognise Ndlovu as the manager of South African Premier Soccer League team Mamelodi Sundowns FC, but he made his name in England as the first African player to appear in the Premier League. He was born in Bulawayo and started his career at local club Highlanders, where it quickly became clear that he was set for a stellar career in the game. He joined Coventry City in 1991 and played in the inaugural Premier League season the following year. He spent 6 years at Coventry and played under legendary managers like Ron Atkinson and Gordon Strachan, wowing fans with pace, flair and goals. He quickly endeared himself to the fans, which led to them giving him the nickname The Bulawayo Bullet. He moved to nearby Birmingham City in 1997 and spent four years there, including a season on loan at Huddersfield Town, before moving to Sheffield United where he spent another three years.
 
Ndlovu scored 37 goals for Zimbabwe in a 17-year career which included qualification campaigns for four World Cups and countless Africa Cup of Nations tournaments. His first goal came against Botswana at their national stadium in Babarone in August 1990, while his final, record-setting goal came in a 2006 World Cup qualification match against Algeria.



Kadewere's chances
A quick glance at Tino Kadewere's scoring record for The Warriors suggests that it is unlikely he will be the man to break Ndlovu's record; he has just 3 goals for the national team so far. However, those who have watched him in club action for Lyon and Le Havre before that would argue that he has a lot of goalscoring potential. He started his career at Harare City before moving to Djurgardens IF in Sweden, where he impressed fans with his speed and trickery, before moving to France. He took a huge step forward at Le Havre, scoring at a rate of roughly a goal every other game, which earned him a multi-million-pound move to Lyon. He has shown his quality in flashes so far with 11 goals in Ligue 1, a return that many feel he can improve on with some slight tweaks to his game.
 
At 26, Kadewere is certainly not a young player, but he is also not too old to make improvements to his play. He is coming into an age when strikers usually start to understand the game better, so it is not unreasonable to expect his goal returns to spike considerably. In terms of the Zimbabwe national team, fans will be hoping to see him given a more prominent role in the side. If this comes to pass, no one would be surprised to see him start to threaten Ndlovu's record.