Vusumuzi Dube
Fungai Muderere, Senior Sports Reporter
FORMER Castle Lager Premier Soccer League outfit Bulawayo City put a US$5 000 price tag on their ex-player Mpumelelo Bhebhe who has since joined 2021/2022 season league runners up Chicken Inn on a permanent deal, Sunday Sport can reveal.
According to a well-placed Bulawayo City insider, in the agreement Amakhosi are said to have put “a compulsory 30 percent sell-on clause” so that if Gamecocks do happen to trade the player to a local or foreign club, Amakhosi will also financially benefit.
While confirming that Bhebhe has permanently joined the 2015 league champions, Bulawayo City general manager Sikhumbuzo Ndebele could not be drawn into revealing the monetary figures involved in the deal. He insisted that it was a deal punctuated with mutual happiness.
“Yes, Bhebhe is now a Chicken Inn player. They should be able to register him for the coming season.
He went to Chicken Inn on a permanent transfer. What the two parties agreed was mutual. To be honest with you, to mention the figures involved in the deal will be very difficult for me. All I can say is that it was a happy deal for us as a club,” said Ndebele.
He added: “I’m sure Chicken Inn will share the same mutual happiness. The permanent transfer is a happy day for both parties. We are looking forward to seeing Mpume proving his mantle at Chicken Inn.”
The Gamecocks parted ways with their ageing centre backs Moses Jackson and Guide Goddard at the end of last season after they started working on acquiring coaching badges. The young Bhebhe, who made his PSL debut as a 16-year-old while turning out for the now defunct Bantu Rovers in 2017, will be expected to provide a healthy competition in the Gamecocks rearguard.
The club’s backline already has another former Bulawayo City player Vincent Moyo, towering Itai Mabunu, right back Passmore Bernard, and left back Nelson Ketala among other equally gifted players.
Interestingly, Bhebhe, who boasts of so much confidence and Moyo, had a telepathic understanding with the latter during their days at Bulawayo City. Besides roping in Bhebhe, at the end of November last year the Gamecocks beat Dynamos to the signature of highly rated ex Young Warriors forward, Calum English-Brown.
English-Brown (21), whom is fondly known as the White Lion, impressed with his individual performances during the 2021/2022 season for Whawha. Some of the country’s leading clubs including Highlanders and Manica Diamonds reportedly also wanted to sign English-Brown.
However, the skillful player opted to join Chicken Inn, having been in constant communication with then Gamecocks head coach Joey Antipas. English-Brown was educated at St John’s College in Harare before joining Legends Football Academy which is based at Hellenic Academy in the capital. His first breakthrough came in 2017 when he was named in then Young Warriors coach Moses Chunga’s squad for the Cosafa Under-17 tournament in Mauritius in 2017.
English-Brown would later join Harare City Football, but he was one of the unused Under-20 players in the squad. English-Brown played for Herentals Football Club Under-20 side in the Zifa Northern Division One Soccer League before a stint at FC Eintracht Norderstedt 03, a German football club based in Norderstedt, Schleswig-Holstein, in the Regionalliga Nord.
He made his PSL debut in March 2022 when Whawha played against Cranborne Bullets at Ascot Stadium and lost 3-2.
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