Peter Ndlovu – Sports – Soccer – Former Highlanders Player and Zimbabwean football coach as well as former professional player

Peter Ndlovu     

                                                                         By ZimLegends 

When young people play football, the game that Zimbabwean soccer commentator Charles Mabika consistently refers to as “the most beautiful game”, they like to assume names of their role models or if not they name one of their own stars after famous players. A quick check around the city of Bulawayo will reveal hundreds of Peter Ndlovu’s in schools, social clubs and all open spaces where youngsters play football, the most popular pass time activity for the youths in the city of Kings.

And the phenomenon is not restricted to Bulawayo alone as more Peter Ndlovu’s can be found in many parts of the country revealing the degree of influence that Peter has had during his prime time as a player at Bosso, with the Dream team and abroad.

Peter became so famous that some pressure groups have attempted to persuade him to go for public office, but the shy and reserved Peter does not believe that he can turn into the big fish preferring to ignore the flattery and never to opt for a whole new ball game.

At age 18, Peter Nsukuzonke Ndlovu made history on August 19, 1992 when he became the first African player to grace the new English Premier League. On that day Peter featured for Coventry City against Tottenham, Coming off the bench 20 minutes to the end of the game to demonstrate what he had in store for the new EPL from the lowly rated southern African state, Zimbabwe. Peter was on the path to arguably emerge the greatest Zimbabwean player of all time.

Some football analysts in Europe believe the move by Ndlovu led to a flood of African players into the English top-division.  “The number of African players plying their trade in Europe’s biggest leagues grew steadily in the early nineties, although there was none present in the starting line-ups on the inaugural day of the Premier League in August 1992,”  wrote  Ed Aarons, a British writer.

Whereas it is not unusual for soccer players to have a bad day in office, even when fans expect the best, soccer lovers in Peter’s home country were convinced that Peter would always be in top-notch form with fresh surprises to cheer up the crowds, hence they named him Nsukuzonke referring to his ability to turn the style every time he was called for duty.

Born on February 25, 1973 in the city of Bulawayo Peter’s parents were from the remote Binga district in Matabeleland North Province of Zimbabwe. As a young boy Peter used to play soccer using improvised plastic balls in the dusty streets of Makokoba the oldest and crowded township in Bulawayo where he grew up with his elder brothers Adam and Madinda who also rose to become football stars.

In both primary and secondary schools that he attended, Peter made it into the first 11, that is at Lotshe primary and Mzlikazi secondary respectively. Cuthbert Chiromo his mentor at Mzilikazi kept a close eye on the boy and it was in fact Chiromo who recommended Peter to the high flying Bulawayo based soccer club, Highlanders FC. Twice consecutively in 1990 and 1991 Peter was crowned soccer star of the year in recognition of his outstanding performance at Highlanders FC.

Prior to his move to England when he was playing for Highlanders, Ndlovu was spotted and scouted by John Skillet. Terry Butcher finally got his signature and brought him to England to feature for the Blues. In his debut season, Peter made 32 appearances and scored 7 goals.

One of the highlights of Ndlovu’s career in the English top division for Coventry was the hat trick he scored against Liverpool at Anfield in March 1995. He became the first opposition player to score 3 goals at Anfield, a record that was only broken by Arsenal’s Andrey Arshavin in April 2009. This was because once in possession of the ball on the attack, Peter would smell blood and would literally fly towards the goal post not allowing defenders to be a hindrance and missing the goal was not in his DNA. For this, he earned himself the nickname flying elephant after his totem Ndlovu the iSindebele name for an elephant.

Peter went on to leave an indelible mark at  Birmingham City between July 1997 and February 2001 later moving to  Sheffield United where he was known to fans as ‘Nuddy’ Peter left Sheffield, the Blades in the summer of 2004 having scored 25 goals in 135 games.  In all Ndlovu scored more than 90 goals during his 12 seasons and 338 appearances in the top two flights of the English football league.

Peter had a stint in the South African premier league when during the 2004 off-season Thanda Royal Zulu made one of their major signings before transfer window closed on the day by bringing former Mamelodi Sundowns striker Ndlovu on board. Ndlovu was released from his contract by Thanda Royal Zulu at the end of 2008–09 after they were relegated from South Africa’s top division.

Peter Ndlovu’s fame at home blossomed when in 2004 he led the “Dream team” the Zimbabwe Warriors which got to within 11 minutes of qualifying for the AFCON and were one game away from USA ’94. He was the first captain to lead Zimbabwe to AFCON qualification, with coach Sunday ‘Mhofu’ Chidzambwa-led team stepping on Tunisian soil for the country’s maiden appearance at the continental showpiece.

Ndlovu ‘The Flying Elephant’. went on to make 100 appearances for his country scoring thirty-eight goals in an international career spanning 16 years-1991 to 2007. He remains the all-time leading goal snatcher for the Zimbabwe warriors.

In 2011, Ndlovu became the assistant manager of the Zimbabwe national team, a position he held for two years.In 2013, Ndlouv returned to Mamelodi Sundowns as the club’s team manager.

The darkest moment for Peter was the 16 December 2012 accident which claimed the life of his brother Adam and a female passenger near Victoria Falls Airport .Peter who was driving his BMW X5 escaped with injuries.