Nyasha Mushekwi (born 21 August 1987) is a Zimbabwean professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays for Chinese Super League club

Zhejiang Greentown Zhejiang Professional Football Club (), commonly referred to as Zhejiang FC or simply Zhejiang, is a professional Chinese football club that currently participates in the Chinese Super League under license from the Chinese Football Association (C ...

Career

Born in

Harare Harare (; formerly Salisbury ) is the capital and most populous city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of 940 km2 (371 mi2) and a population of 2.12 million in the 2012 census and an estimated 3.12 million in its metropolitan ...

, Mushekwi started out playing for

CAPS United CAPS United F.C. is a Zimbabwean football club based in Harare. Formed in 1973, the team rose to prominence in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It was formerly nicknamed the Manchester Road Boys because of their former address. The team's curre ...

in his homeland Zimbabwe. He won the top scorer award after scoring 21 league goals for the Harare giants in 2009 season. In 2010, he made the move to South African club

Mamelodi Sundowns Mamelodi Sundowns Football Club (simply known as Sundowns) is a South African professional football club based in Mamelodi, Pretoria in the Gauteng province that plays in the Premier Soccer League, the first tier of South African football ...

where he found immediate success when he became the second best goalscorer of the 2010–11 Premier Soccer League season. In April 2013, as his contract was nearing its end, Mamelodi Sundowns extended the deal with another year plus an option for an additional second year. For the 2013–14 season, Mushekwi was sent on loan to Belgian club K.V. Oostende, but in February 2014 he suffered an injury from which he did not recover until November. Since his South African club had already used all its foreign player slots for the season, he could not be registered to play for them once he had recovered from injury. In an effort to find a new club in 2015, Mushekwi went on trial with

Hobro IK Hobro Idræts Klub () is a professional association football club based in the town of Hobro, Denmark, that competes in the 1st Division, the second tier of the Danish football league system. Founded in 1913, it is known by the short names 'Ho ...

in Denmark. However, he signed with Swedish club

Djurgårdens IF Djurgårdens Idrottsförening, commonly known simply as Djurgårdens IF, Djurgården (), and (especially locally) Djurgår'n (), Dif or DIF – is a Swedish sports association with several sections, located in Stockholm. Name The club is named ...

, which contacted him while he was in Denmark and brought him to Sweden for a trial, resulting in a 6-month loan deal.

China

On 22 December 2015, Mushekwi transferred to

China League One The Chinese Football Association China League (), also known as China League One or Chinese Jia League (中甲联赛), is the second level of professional football in China. Above League One is the Chinese Super League. Prior to the formation of ...

side Dalian Yifang. He was the top goal scorer in the team for 3 consecutive seasons. However, he suffered a few serious injuries later, from which his physical condition was affected. In the 2017 season, he was once tackled brutally in the right leg, but volunteered to stay on the pitch, and scored an important goal. He eventually helped Yifang win the League One title. In 2018, he was not the preferred player at first competing with

Nicolás Gaitán Osvaldo Fabián Nicolás "Nico" Gaitán (; born 23 February 1988) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for Portuguese Primeira Liga club Paços de Ferreira. A product of Boca Juniors, he joined Benfic ...

and

Yannick Carrasco Yannick Ferreira Carrasco (born 4 September 1993) is a Belgian footballer who plays for La Liga club Atlético Madrid and the Belgium national team as a winger or wing-back. He began his career with Monaco, where he scored 20 goals in 105 ...

, but he won a position by continuous goals. He had pelvis injuries during the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

. Again he tried to stay in the game after a heavy collision in the head with opponent goalkeeper. Overall, his strong spirit gained high reputation among local fans, and was regarded as one of the most important players in team history. In the 2019 season, his performance was below expectation after the surgery. On 15 July 2019, Mushekwi joined China League One side

. He would play a vital part as the club gained promotion to the top tier at the end of the 2021 campaign.

International career

Mushekwi is a member of the

Zimbabwe national football team The Zimbabwe national football team (Nicknamed ''The Warriors''), represents Zimbabwe in men's international football and is controlled by the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA), formerly known as the Football Association of Rhodesia. The t ...

. He was involved in the

Asiagate Asiagate is the name of the match fixing scandal that involved players and officials of the Zimbabwe national football team. Zimbabwe's national team (sometimes composed of local players) underwent tours of Asia and lost several games which led to s ...

scandal but avoided a lifetime ban from international football after volunteering information in the investigation.

Personal life

Mushekwi attended Churchill School where his main sport was

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

. He was voted the most valuable player of the Mashonaland Basketball Association League and represented Zimbabwe at under-19 and senior national team level in the sport.

Career statistics

International

. ''Scores and results list Zimbabwe's goal tally first.''

Honours

Club

Dalian Yifang *

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mushekwi, Nyasha 1987 births Living people Alumni of Churchill School (Harare) Zimbabwean footballers Association football forwards Sportspeople from Harare Mamelodi Sundowns F.C. players CAPS United players K.V. Oostende players Djurgårdens IF Fotboll players Dalian Professional F.C. players Zhejiang Professional F.C. players South African Premier Division players Belgian First Division A players Allsvenskan players Chinese Super League players China League One players Expatriate soccer players in South Africa Expatriate footballers in Belgium Expatriate footballers in Sweden Expatriate footballers in China 2017 Africa Cup of Nations players 2019 Africa Cup of Nations players Zimbabwe international footballers