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Tadious Manyepo Lifestyle Correspondent
SHE takes more than 30 percent of whatever she receives from her Canada-based son to fund the activities of her own football academy.
65 year old Gogo Mavis Katsande gets nothing in return but satisfaction.
For her, the ultimate victory lies in seeing members of her Greenlight Youth Soccer Academy who are mostly orphans and vulnerable children affording a smile at the end of the day.
She has nurtured more than 40 players who have gone to make it at Premiership and lower division clubs over the past eight years.
But she hasn’t been able to benefit anything since the only contract her Kambuzuma-based nursery had with them was verbal.
The current Chibuku Super Cup leading goalscorer Bruno Mtigo who has netted five times for Ngezi Platinum Stars at one point was even sheltered by Gogo Katsande at her Glen View home.
The soccer boots he used when he joined Central Region Division One side ZPC Munyati from where Ngezi Platinum snatched him, were bought by Gogo Katsande.
She claims no compensation at all although she will be able to recoup something for the sale of her current players as she now has binding contracts with them after registering the academy with the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA).
“We now have contracts with our players and in future we will be able to get something if we sell any of our players,”said Gogo Katsande.
“But, our primary objective has ever been to help the youth move from drugs and other social vice, providing them with an opportunity to learn life skills while playing football.
“I am happy that we have been able to churn out talented footballers some of whom are doing well in the top-flight and some lower divisions.
“The likes of Admire Dzvukamanja, Bruno Mtigo among other players all came through this Academy.
“We mostly take those members of the society who are vulnerable, the orphans, those from child-headed families and others.
“Our aim is to take them from the streets and help them shun socially-detremental activities like child marriages which are rampant in the high density surburbs.
“We self-fund the project as what we want to see at the end of the day are smiles on the faces of these children.”
Yet Gogo Katsande, never at any point in her life, including in the days when she was still a teacher, ever think that one day she would develop a passion in football development.
Living in Glen View with her family, she always wanted to watch movies although she would pay attention to some key football matches like the World Cup and Africa Cup of Nations.
Of course there wasn’t much she could do as mostly her family would press to switch to such events.
Her love for the game came about in 2012 when her grandson, Brandon came back home from a training session at a place called Mandundu or Chemhanza in Glen View 1 with some sweet news.
“He had just written his Grade 7 examinations and was in the process of looking for a place for Form 1. So this other day he returned from his routine training sessions at Mandundu.
“He told me that he had been selected as one of the beneficiaries of a scholarship program and was in line to be enrolled at Mt Pleasant High. This is how I ended up accompanying him to the training ground as I wanted to enquire more about the scholarship.
“It was from the interactions that I ended up becoming interested in joining the amateur academy.
“Eventually I became more and more interested in the game. The coaches who founded this academy eventually left for greener pastures and left me to run the project.
“Our coach, Malvern Mhonda works on bit-part basis, coaching a certain club which pays him and comes down to us because he loves the club and mostly he does it for free.”
The project has given the football world the likes of Mtigo, Dzvukamanja, Tafadzwa Chimoyo, Sage Mbirimi, Aaron Mafuva (ZPC Munyati), Tangwara Makumbe (TelOne), Leonard Jani (Whawha), Kelvin Mapingure (Herentals U20), Xolani Dube (Golden Valley) among others.
Internationally, another football-loving grandma has become an internet star after a video of her performing trick shots from her wheelchair was posted online.
Violet Slater, 85, from Telford, Shropshire, was dubbed ‘Gran-aldo’ after she was filmed volleying a football into the top corner of the net.
Her grandson Kodi, 11, has been sharing the clips to raise people’s spirits during the coronavirus lockdown.
They have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times after initially being uploaded by Violet’s 34-year-old son Phil.
She performs her trick shots in her son’s back garden where Kodi has a football training area.
Violet is filmed bouncing the ball off a net before scoring goals and chipping the ball into a bucket.
She also slots the ball into the bottom corner of the goal after threading it through two red gates.
At the end of the video Violet also manages to chip the ball into a bucket without even looking.
She says the football has given her new enthusiasm since her husband Harry’s death in 2017 from dementia.
She said: “It’s put the life back into me to keep on going. It’s so exciting to know all my friends and family are watching.
“I get so carried away watching football especially if it’s my favourite team Wolves. My deceased husband was a keen fan.”
It does not always go to plan as she can also be seen kicking a ball over the garden wall and into her own face.
But lockdown is giving her plenty of time to practise.
She said: “I don’t like to be beaten so I persevere until I get it right.
“I tend to stick my tongue out when I concentrate though, I have a good teacher in my son and grandson.
“I can’t wait to get back to practice to keep me on my toes — which as you can imagine is difficult in a wheelchair.’
Match Of The Day host Gary Lineker retweeted the clip and said: “well played Violet.”
Violet’s son Phil is her full-time carer. He installed the mini football pitch in his back garden so he could train with Kodi and Violet asked if she could join in.
Online Reporter