Chronicle EditorTakudzwa Chitsiga Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE Under-17 soccer coach Moses ”Bambo” Chunga will embark on a scouting mission this weekend as he battles to build a strong team to take part in a four-nations tournament to be hosted by Lesotho next month. The tournament is being organised by the Lesotho Football Association who extended their invitation to the local football motherbody ZIFA.
Chunga will travel to Manicaland this weekend where he will search for talent in Rusape and Mutare. After a reality check at the COSAFA Under-17 Championships in Mauritius from July 21-30, Chunga said he will continue to look for exciting players. The Young Warriors coach also said he expects his players to go into campnext week.”This is about development and it is an on-going exercise,” said Chunga.
”It did not end with the COSAFA mission but that was just part of what we are doing because we want to get the best talent available. COSAFA was just a start and some people, who don’t understand the meaning of development, didn’t understand why I took those young boys. These are the same people who, in four or so years time, will be saying that we now have a strong senior national team yet they don’t want to understand that it has to be built from somewhere.
”The days when we fielded over-aged players who then disappeared along the way, after winning us some junior tournaments, are long gone by because we are working with the real young players.” Chunga said there was a lot of work still to be done and he expects to appoint 10 provincial coaches to help him scout talent around the country.
“There is a lot of hard work to be done, we will focus on developing the future stars as we are only a conveyor belt trying to groom those players,” he said. Several players, including those based in the United Kingdom, are expected to be called for camp. Chunga said he will also extend an invitation to other players with Zimbabwean links from around the world.
Online Reporter