Charles Mabika Special Correspondent

ASK any local football journalist the coach they thoroughly enjoyed interviewing and three names will quickly come out tops — Moses “Bambo” Chunga, Luke “Vahombe” Mosomere and of course, Gishon “Gizha” Ntini.

Sadly, Ntini will no longer be around to continue perforating our ribs with his tickling vibes. The mentor, who called himself “The Lion of Zimbabwe Football” passed away yesterday after losing a long battle with prostate cancer.

Ntini, who cut his teeth into top-flight football coaching under the guidance of Charles Mhlauri at CAPS United in 2003, was a chorus of excitement and delight on and off the pitch as he illustrated that the game was “born” to be enjoyed to the hilt.

He was a larger-than-life character, whose colourful and nomadic sojourn in the world of coaching in this country, Swaziland and Botswana, will be etched with a maze of humour in the lives of all those he rubbed shoulders with in the game’s fraternity. Chunga gave us rip-roaring statements like: “Eeh, when Jose Mourinho changes clubs, he’s moving but when Bambo does the same, he’s nomadic.”

Masomere churned out a roar like: “There is no law in Zimbabwe that says as Shabanie Mine coach, if I lose to Highlanders I must then beat Dynamos in my next game.”

Ntini would chime, in his rasping voice: “When I took over at Chiredzi United, the team’s heartbeat was in the intensive care unit and who was I to resuscitate that faint flicker?”

That was after the Lowveld side had been relegated after Ntini arrived there with an impossible task to steer them into a safe haven with a few games remaining in the 2014 season. Another cracker from him which is always in my mind and sends me over the edge with laughter, was when he briefly took charge of Lower Division side, Beitbridge United for just one match after he had failed to agree terms with the club’s hierarchy. Ntini remarked: “This was my first and last game in charge . . . and I wish them well!”

And, after he had left Rhinos in the relegation zone, he said, “I found them there (in relegation) and I left there.”

But there was a more serious side to Ntini’s personality because he proved that if one sets out his/her goals perceptively, he/she can achieve success.

Starting out as a mere physical trainer at the Green Machine, Ntini would leave CAPS United to defy his critics and go on to achieve success at former Premiership side Shooting Stars (remember the 3-0 thrashing which his side delivered on Dynamos in that nasty violence-ridden and abandoned match in 2006?)

He also guided Triangle United back into the top-flight after an agonising wait of 42 years in 2012 and achieved a top eight finish with them the following season, only to be shockingly sacked by the side.

He had only started work in Botswana before being rushed back home following the recurrent ailment that eventually claimed his life.

Gizha spoke his mind without fear or favour. He was energetic and tactful as he pranced around the technical area and yet he was easy to talk to and his ready smile always invited you to fire more questions at him . . . a task he executed masterfully with brisk response.

That’s why he christened himself “The Lion of Zimbabwe Football”.

I was one of those football journalists who were lucky enough to have been acquainted with “Gizha” and although the pain of losing his great character, humour and finesse will forever be painful to endure, I am somehow relieved because I know that the roar of “Gizha” continues from up above.

For now, The Lions of Zimbabwe Football rests.