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Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
FORMER Highlanders and Young Warriors striker Mkhokheli Dube’s Zebra Revolution will hold trials next month for academically gifted young footballers in preparation for American scouts coming next year.
Dube, a beneficiary of a football scholarship that saw him spending almost a decade in the United States of America between 2004 and 2013, said they will hold two sets of trials on December 8-9 and December 13-14 at the B-Arena of White City Stadium.
“We are inviting young footballers between the ages of 17 and 9 years to attend trials in preparation for scouts who will be coming from the USA in the second week of January. The young footballers should be having good grades and should come with their birth certificates, reports or O-Level certificates for the trials we are holding in December.
“The reason why we’re having these pre-scouts trials is that we recruit and prepare the best talent so that when the scouts arrive, they select from this group. Having good players might also enhance chances of scouts coming back having seen the talent which we would have gathered,” Dube said.
The former Bosso striker who went on to play in America’s topflight, the Major Soccer League (MSL) used the relations he established while in the USA to invite the scouts so that he may give opportunities to young footballers.
“Going to America changed my life as I got to a new different environment and was presented with opportunities I grabbed. Someone gave me an opportunity to go to America and I’m also trying to do the same to the young talent.
“Please note that this is an opportunity for scholar athletes, footballers who play soccer and have an educational background. It doesn’t matter where they come from, we will give them equal opportunities and they must come for trials,” said Dube.
Besides Dube, a number of footballers with good grades managed to get scholarships to study and play football in the USA.
Former national team midfielder who now turns out for Bulawayo Chiefs’ Kelvin Madzongwe, Ackim Mpofu, Zenzo Ndlovu, Nyasha Dube the son of former Hwange coach Nation Dube, former Bantu Rovers’ Marvin Sibanda and Methembe Ndlovu the last coach to win the championship with Highlanders are some of footie stars who got American football scholarships.
– @ZililoR
Online Reporter