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15 July 2008
By Emmanuel Magaisa (Sports Reporter)
Former Warriors mentor, Reinhard Fabisch, in no more. He died on Saturday in Germany after a long battle with cancer at the age of 57.
His death will certainly be a huge loss to the Zimbabwean soccer lovers who had regarded him as one of those rare coaches that fought for the rights and welfare of players.
The firebrand German was popular in African football circles after working with the national teams of Zimbabwe, Kenya and Benin, and clubs in South Africa and the United Arab Emirates.
Though surrounded by controversy at times, it was never enough to taint him, and so he would still remain a coach worth mentioning positively about.
He was also a master of the mind games which are the mainstay of the modern game nowadays.
Fabisch arrived on the Zimbabwe football scene in 1992 where he quickly made a positive mark, and went on to give South Africa a real baptism of fire with a 4-1 drabbing at the National Sports Stadium upon their return to the world of international football after years of international isolation.
Here, he played down his teams’ abilities and praised the South Africans as if they were the only good team then, giving them false hope, and when they came face to face with reality, it was a different ball game altogether. And this was a real introduction to the mind games.
Fabisch went on an outburst when the powers that be up there at ZIFA began to interfere with team selection, and he gave them a piece of his mind as to the terms of his job and what it entailed.
When morale was low in the national team camp because of lack of proper facilities expected of the level of the team, players’ rights being denied or late payments of allowances and bonuses, he would not be cowed into silence, and he would come out in the open and give a fight for his players.
For this he was well known and it became a popular belief that he lost his job with the Zimbabwe national team because they could not stand anyone who washed their dirty linen in the open. The fans would occassionaly grumble their cries for the nclusion of former captain Moses Chunga, fell on deaf ears.
True to say, the man fell in love with Zimbabwe, and he married a lady from Mutoko. He did not just leave the country upon losing his job, and there was always rumour doing the rounds as to him getting this post or that post in the national team.
Fabisch transformed the Zimbabwe national team soccer into a formidable crowd puller. If there was proper administration at ZIFA then, it is possible the team could have done wonders, because the man was a real tactician who was not afraid to take gambles.
He also had a couple of stints in Kenya, and also one in Benin, which was his most recent job. To think that Benin was virtually unknown in international football, but the arrival of Fabisch on the Benin soil made a huge difference as the team went on to make their mark by competing in the African Nations Cup. Such was his capabilities that he endeared himself to the fans of the teams he was coaching.
May his soul rest in peace.
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