By Ayanda Nyuswa
Gagasi FM Sports specialist Mike Makaab has had his say on the Themba Zwane vs Doctor Khumalo debate that has been raging on in recent times and got rivived after Mshishi’s latest display of brilliance in Bafana Bafana colours. Zwane scored a brace when South Africa played a 3-3 draw against Algeria in a FIFA Series clash in Algiers. Mshishi tapped in a Mihlali Mayambela cross 34 minutes into the first half, and produced a moment of wizadry to score a brilliant goal at the stroke of half-time in a heated battle between the two African giants.
The performance got social media and South African football fans buzzing as the question came up once again, has Themba Zwane surpassed the legacy and greatness of the legandary Doctor “16V” Khumalo?
Our sport specialist Mike Makaab has had his say on the matter, and believes it is almost impossible to compare players who played in different eras. The former Orlando Pirates coach believes Themba Zwane is, to his era, what Doctor Khumalo was back in the day.
“The safest way to compare eras is to say Mshishi is to this era what Doctor Khumalo was to his era. Difficult to compare eras, the game has evolved tremendously, technology has incresed exponentially,” said Makaab speaking on Extratime on Gagasi FM.
“Today you can tell how the player is feeling by monitoring his training sessions so things have changed dramatically in the sporting world and in football in particular a lot of advancements in technology. So to compare a player from one era and a player from another era is difficult.”
“Let me give you a great comparison. Let’s take Lionel Messi and let’s compare him to Maradona, and then let’s take Maradona and compare him to Pele. If you watched Pele play and you put him next to Messi, you would have to say Messi is the better player only because the game has changed so much. The intensity, the pace at which the game is played, however, if Pele was subject to the infrastructure, the technology, the training advancements that Lionel Messi was subject to from the academy time, then who knows what Pele might have done in this era. Pele in his era was the greatest, Maradona in his era, in my opinion, was the greatst. Messi and Ronaldo in their era are the greatest, so to compare players from different is eras is not quite fair. You can say that Mshishi is today, what the late John “Shoes” Moshoe was in his era so Themba Zwane is top of the pile,” Makaab concluded.
