adminHarare Premiership giants CAPS United have unveiled a British national, Mark Simon Harrison, as their new coach for the season. Before coming to CAPS United, Harrison was at South African Division One side Golden Arrows. The 54-year-old Harrison takes over from Taurai Mangwiro who dumped the club for city rivals Harare City last month.
Harrison becomes the second from the United Kingdom to coach the team in recent years after Sean Connor had a short stint in 2012 until his relationship with the club went sour.
The new coach has been given a three-year contract in which he will be in charge of all the football teams’ set from the juniors right to the seniors.
A former goalkeeper during his playing days at Southampton and later Stoke City, Harrison will work with former CAPS United goalkeeper Brenna Msiska and Tostao Kwashi as his first assistant coach while George Gumbo is the players’ welfare manager.
The club’s president, Twine Phiri, and chief executive Joe Makuvire unveiled Harrison before the media on Wednesday afternoon.
“It’s an honour for me to be here today and I know a lot of people will ask questions like why Zimbabwe and why CAPS United?.
“The reason why I made a decision to come is because of the ambition and the desire to get better and grow the club. I have the desire to make the club the biggest in Zimbabwe and to take it to Africa and that’s what I want as well,” said Harrison.
Harrison said he knows local football after working with Zimbabwean players in South Africa and watching the domestic Premiership on television.
“I do understand the dynamics of Zimbabwean football and one thing that I know is that Zimbabwean players are mentally and physically stronger than South African players.
“The league itself is possibly not as technical as the South African, but those things can be improved,” he said.
Harrison, who once coached the Bangladesh national team in 2000, said CAPS United fans should not expect instant results but should give time for the system to gel.
“It’s my job to improve the players to make the team better and the players better. But what we are trying to do now is to build for the future and thats why we should have sound juniors in place,” said Harrison.
Phiri, the CAPS United president appealed to the CAPS United fans to support Harrison in his new adventure.
“It was not easy for me to come up with a decision to hire a foreign coach. We were coming from a period where we had lost our coach Taurai Mangwiro.
“I want to applaud our fans for being patient and I think in Harrison, we have brought in the right person to fill Taurai’s shoes and he will do a wonderful job for us.
“He is not going to be restricted to the senior team only but we want him to come up with a development programme for the institution.
“I pray and hope that the results will come our way,” said Phiri. — Sportszone.
Online Reporter