Thulani Biya Ncube is a legendary football player who during his prime times featured for Highlanders Football Club and national team as a defender.
He is believed to be one of the greatest defenders to ever don the black and white jersey at Highlanders.
Ncube went on to become a top drawer defender to the extent that at one time he was captain of Bosso, the Under-23 national team and the Warriors.
Thulani was born on 21 September 1977 in Pelandaba, and grew up in a family of footballers Bulawayo.
He is married and has three children Ashley, Banele and Mario.
Ncube did his early education at Inzwananzi Primary School before going to Inyanda Secondary School.
While still at primary, he played for a local team Cambridge Stars, in Gwabalanda.
He began his career in football as a promising 11-year-old goalkeeper for Cambridge United in Gwabalanda then moved to Zimbabwe Saints Football Club juniors and later Highlanders.
At Cambridge Stars, he played for three years then moved to play for Zimbabwe Saints when he was in Form One at the age of 14 years.
He played there for two years then moved to Highlanders Football Club juniors. That time he played as a forward and sometimes as a midfielder.
At Zimbabwe Saints he played with the likes of Richard Choruma, Gift Lunga Jr and one of his best friends, Mlamuleli Ncube who ended up playing for Saints’ first team and Hwange.
Ncube played under Ali Baba Dube for one year and when he went back to Highlanders he went with him. He moved to Bosso juniors in 1993 when he was in Form 3. He was an aggressive player as he went on to play as a defender after Ali Baba moved him to that position.
He played with the likes of Melusi Ndebele, Zenzo Moyo, Melusi Sibanda, Master Masiku, Siza Khoza, Mkhuphali Masuku, Simon Sibanda and Kelvin Maseko.
He also played with the late Lenny Gwata and Ozzie Sibanda who ended up playing for Hwange.
During Biya’s time Highlanders proved to be unstoppable winning three championships.
He won the championship in the 1998-1999 season, 2000 and 2001 and played under the late Eddie May. Ncube cherishes the feeling of lifting the league trophy three times.
He left Highlanders in 2002 to join South African side Ajax Cape Town. Not only was Biya a calculative central defender, he also initiated attacks and could score crucial goals as well in the process.
He also possessed good leadership skills when he captained three sides (Highlanders Football Club, the Warriors and the National U23 side) simultaneously.
Despite his career being cut short by injury, Biya is remembered as one of the players who was committed to Highlanders and to the national team.
Since moving to the US in 2003, Thulani has been training and grooming young talent.
“I came here in 2003 and it’s not too bad. I work with schools and junior teams, academies, something like that. Right now I am a director of coaching. There is a club called MC United. I am the director of coaching on the boys’ side. Most of the time I work on developing young kids, like from the age of eight going up to the age of 18.
“Most of the time it’s just developing them on knowing how to play (soccer), especially the younger ones… knowing how to play the ball, knowing how to pass the ball so that when they get older they will know those things,” he once said.
His eight-year flirtation in the Highlanders first team, Bosso won an avalanche of titles, including four Zimbabwe Premier Soccer League championships from 1998 to 2002, Independence Cup 2001 and 2002, ZIFA Unity Cup 2001, Cosmos Challenge Cup 1998 and Dairibord Charity Shield 2001, among others.