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Robson Sharuko Senior Sports Editor—
KNOWLEDGE MUSONA’S double strike at the weekend, which downed heavyweights Anderlecht, has propelled him into pole position in the Belgian Golden Boot race, as Zimbabwe’s international strikers continue to make waves in Europe. The Warriors’ talisman scored a brace to power KV Oostende to a 3-1 win over Anderlecht, a stunning result that catapulted his Belgian club, which has invested in nine African players from nine different countries on the continent, to the top of the Juliper Pro League.

Musona’s haul of three goals in four matches, including a penalty, swept the Zimbabwe star to the top of the scoring charts in Belgium where he is in the company of Anderlecht’s Idrissa Sylla, Westerlo’s Frederick Gounongbe and Jovan Kostovski of OH Levren.

It was Oostende’s third win in four matches, where they remain unbeaten in the Belgian top-flight, and powered the club top of the standings on the table ahead of champions Gent, who are two points adrift, as they battle to defend a league title they won for the first time in 115 years.

Club Brugge, who were last night involved in the Uefa Champions League with a first leg date against three-time winners of the competition, Manchester United, of England at Old Trafford, are a further point behind in third place.

Musona is one of the nine African players at Oostende where his teammates include skipper Sebastien Siani from Cameroon, Didie Ovono, the goalkeeper from Gabon, Yannick Loemba, a Congolese winger, South African international midfielder Andile Jali and Ivorian forward Cyriac Gohi Ba, known as Zoro.

Other members of that African family include Nigerian striker Joseph Akpala, Senegalese forward Elimane Coulibaly and Jordan Lukaku, the 21-year-old brother of Everton forward Romelu, who was born in Belgium but who, unlike his brother, wants to play for the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Zoro took a 40 percent pay cut to move from Anderlecht to Oostende just to ensure that he gets regular game time although his new club have improved their financial base, in the past two years, they are even offering deals that can lure players from Germany like Musona.

Musona struck after just three minutes against Anderlecht and had some good chances, to double his tally, in that first period, including hitting the bar five minutes before the break.

After Anderlecht had equalised, through an own goal by Antonio Milic, Oostende regained their

lead through Cyria before

Musona completed his brace, from the spot, to seal the win.

Musona’s good form should be good news for the Warriors fans who want their talisman to fire on all cylinders when Zimbabwe host Guinea’s National Elephants next month hoping to make it two wins in two matches in the 2017 Nations Cup qualifiers.

The 25-year-old has been the leading light for the senior national team in the past few years, scoring crucial goals for his country, and images published by Oostende, showing him singing and celebrating with the fans after the win over Anderlecht, appear to suggest that he has, once again, found the joy of playing the game after a difficult spell in Germany.

While Musona is leading the scoring charts in Belgium, his Warriors’ teammate, Nyasha Mushekwi, is in second place, in the race for the Golden Boot, in Sweden where he has scored 11 goals for Djurgardens in 20 appearances.

Mushekwi trails race leader, Henok Goitom, by two goals after enduring a lean spell, which has seen him fail to score since July 13, in the Swedish Allsvenskan.

Rising Zimbabwe teenage forward, Macauley Bonne, who turns 20 on October 26, opened his account in English League One when he scored Colchester United’s goal in a 2-1 away defeat at the hands of Peterborough at the weekend.

It was Colchester United’s first away goal, in the current campaign, and a confident Bonne, tweeted, after the match that this was the “first of many goals this season.”

Colchester were set to host Oldham Athletic in another league game last night and the expectation was that Bonne, who impressed in that defeat at Peterborough, would be entrusted to lead the line once again.

The forward, who has one cap for Zimbabwe after featuring in a friendly international against Morocco last year, was thrust into the starting XI in the absence of team captain, Chris Porter, and this was his first league start in more than five months.

“It’s good to get off the mark for the season so early and hopefully there’ll be many more to come – hopefully it’s just the start for me,” Bonne told the Daily Gazette.

The Zimbabwean forward, who made 10 appearances for Colchester United last season, believes this could be his breakthrough season.

“I think this season will be one of the biggest of my career,” he told The Chelmsford Weekly News. “I’m 19 — turning 20 soon — and I want to be comfortably playing in the first team in League One.

“I want to be getting regular minutes and hopefully achieve my target of being a goalscorer in the first team.

“I’ve still got more to do to get where I want to be but I’m sure I’m on the right track to get there.

“The target is always to score as many goals as I can and as long as I’m getting opportunities to score, I must be doing something right.”

With a number of Zimbabweans, notably Costa Nhamoinesu in the Czech Republic, currently doing very, this could be a very important phase in the revival of the Warriors.

However, one Zimbabwean who will not be part of the Warriors, is defender Brendan Galloway, who has pushed his way into the Everton first team, after he decided to try his luck with England’s Three Lions rather than the Warriors.