Yesteryear greats could have made the cut abroad: ...

Yesteryear greats could have made the cut abroad: Joey Antipas

Zim Now Writer

Joey Antipas, Reg Payne, Majid Dhana, Carlos Max and Doorman Moodley, the Arcadia United Football Club defence was among the best of the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Arcadia back then were a formidable force recognisable also by its good racial mix and playing some exciting football. Right-back Antipas nicknamed Mafero was a hard nut to crack, ever business-minded on the field, good in defence and ever threatening on the overlap with good crosses for his strikers Richard Manda, Charlie Jones, Bethal Salis and George Rollo.

Born on 16 November 1959 in Harare, Moffat Primary School was the obvious choice for Antipas’ elementary education. He proceeded to Morgan High School like most of his peers from the Arcadia community.

“Throughout my school days, I had football guys around me, some of whom went on to play professional football like Hamid, George Rollo the 1979 Soccer Star of the Year, Reg Payne, Charlie Jones, Carlos Max, Doorman Moodley and Bert Moodley.”

Antipas started off with the Arcadia Under-14s and worked his way up to the senior team.

“I made my first team debut at the age of 18 with the late Hamid Dhana and Max Joseph. I realised my dream of playing big-time football as a young player,” said Antipas.

Growing up in the community Antipas said they had great role models like Hedley Layton and Herman Hendricks.

Hendricks is regarded as one of the best players to emerge from Zimbabwe and was in the national team framework before Independence.

“Hedley and Hendricks who were senior players pushed us all the way,” said Antipas.

The former national team defender who was capped 24 times said former national team coach Mick Poole played a pivotal role in his career when he was the Arcadia coach. He was a good tactician and disciplinarian perhaps drawn from his police job.

“The late Mick Poole played an integral part in my career, he was a great coach,” said Antipas.

It was easy for Antipas to adjust in the side as a majority of the players were guys he knew and grew up with. The club competed well with the big teams of the era — Black Aces, Caps Rovers later United, Gweru United, Umtali, Wankie, Dynamos, Rio Tinto, Zisco and Zimbabwe Saints.

The highlight of his club was beating Gweru United 3-2 in the Chibuku Trophy final in 1983 and defending champions Highlanders FC in the same competition in 1985. They beat highly fancied Highlanders 1-0. It was not an ordinary Highlanders but one that had heavy ammunition in Madinda Ndlovu, Titus Majola, Willard Khumalo and Mercedes Sibanda.

“At Arcadia United we went on to win the Chibuku Trophy in 1983 and 1985 beating Gweru United 1-0 and Highlanders. We appeared in finals regularly which we were runners-up and during our time the competition was very intense due to the fine talents we had then in the country. During our time no players went out of the country except for the likes of Bruce Grobbelaar who went on to play for Liverpool,” said Antipas.

With the country retaining its best players because of the 1970 suspension from Fifa, it meant that there was no talent drain.

He believes many yesteryear greats could have made the cut abroad.

“If there were opportunities back then like what it is today, many players would have been playing in foreign leagues. Back in the days we were famous but with no fortune,” said the Chicken Inn technical adviser.

In his time Rollo, Mike Abrahams, Majid and Hamid Dhana, Shaun Charters, Charlie Jones, Carlos Max and Nat Bismark were either called up to the Under-20s or the senior national teams because Arcadia was a great side.

Driven by their motto: “Do or Die,” Arcadia had the flamboyancy of the township with flair driven in midfield by Hamid, David Zulu and Mike Abrahams.

“We had great players in our community who we all wanted to emulate like Herman Hendrikse, Hedkley Layton and Black Cat Stewart ‘Sikalo’ Gilbert and Reg Paizee who all had represented the country,” said Antipas of the club’s great heroes who were so good as to be part of the 1969 team that missed qualifying for the 1970 World Cup finals by a whisker.

With Antipas playing consistently and dealing with great players of the times like David George, July Sharara, David Khumalo, Thomas Chipembere, Wonder Chaka, Joseph Zulu, Machona Sibanda, Majuta Mpofu, Morgan Phiri, it was not long before he earned national colours. He would go on to play for the national team 24 times.

“I went on to play for the national team and it was an honour donning national team colours and playing with the best players in the land,” said Antipas.

He played alongside Japhet Mparutsa, Oliver Kateya, Sunday Chidzambwa, Misheck Chidzambwa, Stanford “Stix” Mtizwa, David Mandigora, Joel Shambo, Shaky Tauro, Stanley Ndunduma, Madinda Ndlovu, Douglas Mloyi, Joseph Machingura and Boy Ndlovu.

Antipas’ Arcadia best back four had him at rightback, Rag Payne on the left, Ernest Mutano and Majid Dhana at the heart of defence. They played typical don’t miss the ball and opponent game when they chose to be naughty and would be hard on the tackle. It was, however, their serious approach to the game in defence that won then national caps.

Among his defence partners in the national teams were Graham Boyle, Sunday, Ephert Lungu, Oliver Kateya, James Takavada, Ephraim Dzimbiri, Misheck Chidzambwa, Ernest Mutano, Charles Sibanda and Highlanders FC legend, Mloyi.

He says Arcadia had many very good players during his time and it is difficult to come up with one name as having been the best.

On why there are no more players from the coloured community playing football, Antipas said the demise of Arcadia United saw many give up on the game. Antipas retired from playing in 1990 and ventured into coaching starting off with Arcadia.

A Caf B diploma holder and a former national team assistant and interim coach in 2019, when Zimbabwe qualified for the African finals, Antipas won the Zimbabwe Premier League title with Motor Action in 2010. He would return to the podium five years later becoming the fourth team after AmaZulu, Highlanders and Zimbabwe Saints to win the league title from Bulawayo with Chicken Inn. But in the modern-day PSL era Chicken Inn became the third after Highlanders in 1993, 1998/99, 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2006 while AmaZulu were kings in 2003.

Antipas is the father of former Zimbabwe Under-23 and senior national team striker, Quincy, who is now retired and lives abroad where he has gone into player management.