Zito Ogbonna: Hapoel Tel Aviv Prime Minister

By IKENWA NNABUOGOR

Born Ibezimako Ernest Ogbonna, this bulky front man had his future well sorted even before it had begun.

Raised in Sokoto into a well educated family background, Ogbonna Zito Zito had his path well charted on a football lane contrary to expectations of his public servant father and nurse mother, who wanted him to be a well educated graduate sitting behind a computer and pursuing a career in a cozy office.

Sokoto wasn’t going to give him what he wanted as a very ambitious youngster whose fame in the football circles started at the Army Day Secondary School, Sokoto.

Enugu and Lagos played hosts to his early football temporary destinations outside his Sokoto comfort zone. Touted as the perfect replacement for Enugu Rangers’ hitman Kenneth Zeigbo who had scored his way out of Rangers and Nigeria as a whole following his superlative performances for club and country.

Zeigbo had defected to Poland to take stocks of his brilliant season for club and country and the starry-eyed inexperienced 16-year old who interestingly shared similar attributes with him, including physical features, was put forward to continue where Zeigbo had stopped. But the youngster was not given a chance to prove he was worth the Rangers’ troubles following Zeigbo’s inevitable departure.

The Middle East was the next port Zito’s ship docked but the ambitious youngster would dump the petro-dollars in the Middle East for the more glamorous windows in Europe and Israel received this rare gift unknown, untested, unsong and gambled on him.

Hapoel Tel Aviv were ready to put Zito forward as the rivalry between the two Tel Aviv clubs – Hapoel and Maccabi – continued to attract almost the whole population of Tel Aviv to the Bloomfield Stadium both rival clubs shared.

Was the young acquisition ready and with the right legs to put some gloss on the red half of Tel Aviv?

Bullish, strong, reliable, big, built like Da Bull Daniel Amokachi, Zito was signed on a four-year contract and given the licence in the attack to hunt down Maccabi as well as wrestle down the domestic titles that Maccabi had made sure it eluded them.

Zito would be forever be remembered for his massive supersub tag that struck fear into the Israeli Premier League clubs.

Hapoel manager was supremely strategic and tactical with his Nigerian prodigy and not long, Zito began to deliver the goodies straight up from the bench so much that their rivals and other clubs wished his manager wouldn’t play him.

Seasons after seasons, Zito bullied opponents with his massive size, skill, speed, aerial prowess as well as his excellent wing plays that always made life difficult for opponents who were at sea pinning him down from either the wings or in the central attack.

Maccabi Tel Aviv stepped it up to lord over the arch rivals, beating them to the domestic titles but would always face a huge mountain to climb facing Zito and his brutal bullish style.

Bloomfield Stadium housing the two huge Tel Aviv rivals threatened to force Benjamin Netanyahu off his Presidential villa alongside some Members of the Parliament as the media warned ahead Zito was uncaged to deal with Maccabi. Zito was celebrated in the whole of Israel.

The league diadem wasn’t really within reach but the FA Cup title remained the biggest Zito and Hapoel Tel Aviv’s achievement while the Sokoto-born striker was in charge as the attack live wire.

But this time it wasn’t Maccabi Tel Aviv, it was Bnei Yehuda with compatriot and former Super Eagles’ goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama in goal, that dared the celebrated supersub. The fans were growing impatient as the 2005/06 Israeli FA Cup final dragged on into the second half scoreless as there was no Zito to change the face of the final game.

The coach knew the exact time his Nigerian Lion King was making his way on to the pitch and voila, Zito’s grand entry alerted Enyeama, whom he had scored four times earlier in the exchanges between them, and expectedly the whole stadium received a power surge, the Zito electric effect.

Typically, Zito, the Enyeama killer killed the game with just three minutes left on the clock, skillfully blasting the ball between Enyeama’s legs and the ball was in the net. Hapoel became the FA Cup champions and Zito’s hero’s status reached a dizzying height.

The delirious fans took this rare win a mouth watering further by releasing a song in Zito’s name that would later become a hit in Tel Aviv and beyond as the radio stations feasted on the song.

Injuries were never part of the deal Zito signed up for at Hapoel but these monsters continued to slow him down which would eventually put paid to his brilliant career.

But he defied them to put Hapoel forward with his goals and took it further in Europe as Hapoel did the unthinkable by reaching the group stage of the defunct Uefa Cup before PSG and Glasgow Rangers conspired to deny them a spot in the quarter-finals.

PSG would never forget Zito in a hurry in the double legs as he punished the defence to score in Paris.

It would be very safe to say, according to the appreciative Hapoel fans that Zito was Hapoel and Hapoel were Zito because the bulky strikers owned the opponents’ nets and had the licence to tear them anytime, anyhow he liked.

The picture below had the captions written in Hebrew saying that “only one player destroyed Beiter Jerusalem” as the true-to-type Zito fired a hat trick to turn back Beitar in one of their league ties.

So popular he was in the whole of Tel Aviv that even his personal car was recognized anywhere irrespective of who was behind the wheels. What this meant was that nothing would ever happen to his cars as they were very sure of the people’s intervention.

Surely, Zito saw off his four-year contract, a rarity for a foreigner at that time because the expectations were skyhigh and overwhelming, and it was time for him to explore further as what has a beginning must have an ending. Zito ended his glorious Hapoel stay on a high with two great honours to a beautiful gloss.

Romanian side Cluj Napoca would eventually win his signature and off he landed in Romania with a troubled knee on a three year contract. The offer was mouthwatering for Zito to savour the sweet retinue of Portuguese players in the club but injuries only limited him but not without the league and FA Cup titles round his thick neck.

Zito was off to South Africa after mutually disengaging from Cluj to begin another journey in Johannesburg, signing for Kaizer Chiefs that had club President Kaizer Moutaung breaking the FNB Bank to make Zito the highest paid player in the South Africa’s Professional Football League.

Zito breathed again in the Rainbow Nation with the expectations he would bomb down the PSL with his goals, power, pace and renewed vigour. Relapsing injuries had other plans for the exciting player who was eyeing a rejuvenation in the most lucrative league in Africa.

It was time to move again as Zito ran down the clock on his injury-marred career this time to Albania but it was in North Macedonia that he managed another title, the club’s first in as many years, at FK Vardar before another shot in Kazakhstan was just enough for the Sokoto-born star to hang his boots.