To those with long enough memories, he is the first African footballer to score a Premier League goal. To fans of Coventry City and Birmingham City, he will forever be known by the nickname Nuddy.
He has been given the sobriquet the Bulawayo Bullet - a tribute to both Zimbabwe's second city, where he was born, and his searing pace - while his team-mates in the Zimbabwe national side used to call him Zonga.
But to Florence Dlamini, Peter Ndlovu is nothing more than a 'deadbeat man' who refuses to do the right thing by his own flesh and blood. In a December interview with the Chronicle, a Bulawayo-based daily newspaper, Dlamini, the mother of one of Ndlovu's 13 children, offered a scathing assessment of a man still revered by many in his homeland.
'Peter Ndlovu is the father of my daughter, a daughter that he is failing to take care of,' said Dlamini. 'I am facing a very difficult path after the passing of my mother.
'My mother had cancer and was in ICU until she passed on, and when I asked for help from this man, he called my child, his blood, a bastard.
'I did not even once ask for help with my mother’s medical bills, but only asked him to take the baby since schools were closed. I was sleeping at the hospital, ensuring that my mother had someone next to her.
'That’s when he shouted at me and called my daughter a bastard, while my mother was fighting for her life.'
The media fanfare surrounding the sleek, £110,000 BMW SUV Ndlovu acquired late last year, a gift from Zimbabwean entrepreneur Wicknell Chivayo, did little to dampen Dlamini's ire.
Writing on social media, Chivayo described the vehicle as a token of appreciation for Ndlovu's 'outstanding contribution to the game of football, and for inspiring generations of Zimbabwean soccer fans'.
For Dlamini, though, it was just one more example of the conspicuous wealth that, she claims, has been notably absent in her own dealings with Ndlovu.
'I don’t want to be labelled a bitter mother, but I am sick and tired of this deadbeat man,' she said. 'Every week I see a new post on Facebook, Instagram, and many other social media platforms about what he has acquired. A new post from a father who isn’t able to see his children; a new post from a man who wants nothing to do with his children.'
Quite what Ndlovu makes of it all is impossible to say. The 52-year-old has responded neither to Dlamini's allegations nor to a request for comment for this article submitted through the Zimbabwean FA.
What can be said with certainty, however, is that we have been here before with the Zimbabwe national team's most prolific goalscorer.
Two years ago, Ndlovu became embroiled in a bitter legal dispute with the mother of another two of his children, claiming he could not afford to pay £568 in maintenance because his resources were already thinly spread caring for his 11 other offspring.
'I'm obliged to contribute and see to the maintenance needs of all 13 of my children,' Ndlovu told the Johannesburg high court.
'I earn a monthly salary that is utilised for my own living expenses, needs, necessities, and liabilities as well as to contribute to the dependents' expenses and other obligations.
'Two minor children were born between the respondent and me. I was not informed by the respondent about the pregnancies or the subsequent births of our children.
'There is no communication between the respondent and me. We share no relationship and there is no contact between us.
'I cannot simply afford a deduction of 29,845 rand [£1,265] per month from my salary.'
Sharon Dee, a gospel singer in South Africa who was married to Ndlovu for 11 years before they divorced in 2009, also filed proceedings against the former player over unpaid child maintenance.
'Ndlovu never paid up and this resulted in my having to take my kids to live with his sister in London last year,' Dee told the Sowetan newspaper in 2012. 'I just could not manage.'
The previous year another old flame, Lisa Rauteneimer, had filed court papers in Johannesburg after claiming Ndlovu defaulted on support payments for their two children.
Delving further back, in 2004 a South African magistrate ordered Ndlovu to pay maintenance to a woman named Alice Thabulo, whom he met while playing for Sheffield United.
The same year, a Zimababwean woman named Amina Esof likewise claimed she was owed maintenance payments by the striker, who is also understood to have a child with Pinky Duda, a South African woman.
Touching on the turbulent nature of his personal life shortly before his initial retirement in 2009 (two years later he would briefly lace up his boots again for the Zimbabwean side Black Mambas), Ndlovu was sanguine.
'Those things have made me stronger,' he said. 'I am positive about life and I am enjoying my life.'
That joy was certainly evident in his football.
After starting his career at the Bulawayo-based club Highlanders, Ndlovu arrived in England as a slight but skilful 18-year-old when Coventry signed him for £10,000 in the summer of 1991.
When former player and manager Bobby Gould returned to Highfield Road as manager a year later, he immediately liked what he saw.
'I didn’t know much about him at all when I first got there, said Gould. 'He was as quiet as a field mouse. But all of a sudden, when I saw him in training I thought, "My goodness, what have we got here?" He came under the radar really.
'It’s always a bit difficult for African players to come and settle in but I think it was the way everyone loved him.' said Gould. 'It was a real love affair between him and the fans. He was a lovely young man who had come over with no airs and graces but just wanted to be successful. After a while he just blossomed'
When Ndlovu scored in an away win at Sheffield in September 1992, he became the first in a long and illustrious line of African Premier League goalscorers. It is an achievement that has acquired increasing significance with the passage of time.
'I'm sure I was told then, "Do you know that you're the first African to play in the Premier League?" and I probably just said: "OK" and didn't give it any more thought,' Ndlovu would later reflect.
'The thing for me was that I was just playing football. But when you see now after all these years, it's very special when you've started something for African players to come after me. I'm just so proud of all of them that they have made [the Premier League] better.'
Ndlovu went on to make 176 appearances for Coventry, his combination of scorching pace, nimble trickery and deceptive strength earning him 39 goals for the Sky Blues and piquing the interest of opposing managers.
Among them was George Graham, who persuaded Arsenal to make a £4 million bid for his services in 1993. It would have been a new British record for a transfer fee, but Ndlovu was unmoved when Gould informed him of the offer.
'Bobby Gould said, "Peter, Arsenal are knocking on the door for you," but, being a kid at the time, I replied: "Boss, I’m happy here." That was my focus,' Ndlovu later told FourFourTwo.
'It was very special to be wanted by a big team like Arsenal, but I was already the darling of the crowd at Coventry and I wanted to give more back to the people who supported me.'
In any case, Ndlovu's first love in English football was Liverpool, whom he had supported as a boy. But despite the reported interest of manager Roy Evans, a move to Merseyside never materialised - although Anfield did provide him with what he would come to regard as his finest moment in the game.
Thirty years ago this month, Ndlovu became the first visiting player to bag a hat-trick in front of the Kop since Terry Allcock scored three for Norwich in 1962. The pick of the bunch was the third, a weaving run from central midfield that left the Liverpool defence flailing before he slotted home an assured finish from the edge of the area.
'I think that is the highlight of my career,' Ndlovu later recalled. 'As a youngster I had supported Liverpool, so to score three against them at the Kop end was unbelievable, but also a bittersweet moment as a fan.
'Phil Babb, my favourite player, had left Coventry to join Liverpool and he said to me, "One day, you must come to Liverpool because it’s your team." After that game, he asked me, "How can you score three goals against your favourite team?" I replied, "Hey, I’m at work for Coventry!" I had to focus on where I was working, not who I supported.
'Still, it was a special occasion for me and I’ll cherish that forever.'
Following a £1.6m move to Birmingham City in 1997, Ndlovu would never again feature at Premier League level. He would make 106 appearances for the St Andrew's outfit, scoring 23 goals before a brief loan spell at Huddersfield Town was followed by a move to Sheffield United in 2001.
Three years later he left for South Africa, where he represented Mamelodi Sundowns, whom he would later manage.
But tragedy struck in December 2012, when Ndlovu was seriously injured in a car accident in Victoria Falls. The crash claimed the life of his older brother Adam as well as female passenger Nomqhele Tshuli, a 24-year-old woman who was with them.
Ndlovu, who was driving, was later cleared of culpability and continued to work as assistant manager of the Zimbabwe national team.
'It's a closed chapter now, and people have to move on with their lives,' said Harrison Nkomo, his lawyer at the time.
Amid the turmoil in his personal affairs, it is a mantra Ndlovu has since learned to live by.