Kaizer Chiefs football manager Bobby Motaung and club legend Donald Khuse watched Khama Billiat in action for Zimbabwe’s Aces Youth Soccer Academy in 2009 but were not impressed by the pint-sized forward and instead settled for defender Thomas Sweswe.
Motaung and Khuse were on a scouting mission in Harare when Musona and Billiat, then 19-year-olds, played for Division One side Aces Academy in a curtain-raiser for a Premiership match between Dynamos and Monomotapa United in which Sweswe charmed the Chiefs men.
Musona was already on Chiefs radar for two years, dating back to the 2007 Cosafa Under-20 Championship where, as a 17-year-old, he came on as a substitute to fire in a hat-trick which helped Zimbabwe sink South Africa 3-0 in the final.
But Motaung and Khuse wanted to have another look at Musona and their eyes also settled on centre-back Sweswe ahead of Billiat who was just right under their noses.
This was despite how the club’s former defensive midfielder Tinashe Nengomasha had alerted Chiefs of Billiat, but the forward still appeared anonymous to the scouts.
“I had kept an eye on Knowledge Musona, and they wanted to fly out to Bulawayo to watch a different player, but I told them there was a gem of a player who had recently been to Sundowns for trials,” Nengomasha told Far Post.
Chiefs went for Sweswe although Billiat was already being monitored by other Premier Soccer League (PSL) clubs. He had just undergone trials at Mamelodi Sundowns who did not see much value in him.
A year later, Billiat was snapped up by Ajax Cape Town where he spent two and a half seasons before Sundowns he came calling for the man they had previously overlooked.
In 2018, it was now Chiefs’ turn to sign Billiat whose talent had escaped their eyes nine years earlier and when he finally arrived at Naturena, they made him their highest-paid player in the PSL.
Sweswe recalls that day in Dynamos FC colours at Rufaro Stadium when he made the Chiefs scouts turn a blind eye on Billiat.
“I remember seeing ‘BobSteak’ and Ace at the hotel where we were camping. They were with Nengomasha, whom I knew from school. He told me they had come to see Knowledge, but they would also watch the Dynamos game,” Sweswe said.
“I played my normal game, I didn’t try too hard or else I’d have messed up. Kaizer Chiefs changed my life, I live in my own house, I drive my own cars because of that opportunity.”
Sweswe spent three seasons at Chiefs, before crossing the Johannesburg divide to Bidvest Wits where he played for just a season.