Soccer supporters the world over watch matches and do not run around the stadium and spend more energy than the players themselves. But Michael Chindowa affectionately known in the football family as Chuchu is a rarity.

His passion for soccer developed from listening to soccer commentaries on radio in the church community he grew up in and when the church eventually weaned him off, Chuchu came to Harare in 1973 and that is when he watched his first match.

“God is real. My mother died while giving birth to me. Catholics took over immediately. I have been in numerous Catholic church choirs in Highfield and Mbare ever since I came to Harare in 1973. I am a catechist teaching the tempted so I cannot be seen sitting with foul-mouthed people in a stadium. I cannot be seen sitting with people singing obscenities because that is an insult to my Catholicism. This is why I run around alone in the stadium until the game is over.

“If I sit with such kind of people what will the people I congregate with say? What will the people I try to convert say? What will happen to my morals as a family man, a father of two grown up children?” asks Chuchu.

All soccer lovers certainly remember this bespectacled man, clad in blue robes, holding a flag in one hand, a cowbell in another, sweating profusely but still running the entire game, without burning out.

“I don’t sit down. If you notice, I am my own man. I am a Dynamos fan and I will die a Dynamos fan,” he charged.

But how did he earn the sobriquet Chuchu? You can learn that and more by clicking here