Watch: Football standards have gone down, yesteryear greats praised

Lovemore Dube, Zimpapers Sports Hub

A 92-year-old football fan, Joseph Nelson Mthethwa has stopped watching local football and believes it is no longer as exciting as before.

Mthethwa started watching football in the 1940s and says he watched founding Bosso players Nsele Hlabangana and Siphambaniso Khumalo in the twilight stages of their careers.

He argues that his assertion is not far-fetched, as he has watched even recent stars like Peter Ndlovu.
“Good football was played in the past. Players like Scholar, when you look at them, Messi, Ronaldo and Yamal, it’s God-given talent, some players are trained to be good, others it’s talent. Players like Jambok were talented, they played at the wrong time, had they played in these times they could have been like Peter Ndlovu,” said Mthethwa.

Gibson Makhanda, Jesto Rice, John ‘Walker’ Phiri, Dusty King and Square from Mutare, he said, with their talents would have gone far if they had played in these times like Peter Ndlovu did.

The aforementioned stars were the top players in the 1950s and early 1960s.

They dominated the football scene and earned rave reviews and deservingly shot themselves into football folklore.

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