Online Reporter
Tadious Manyepo
Zimpapers Sports Hub
CAPS United president Farai Jere said Warriors goalkeeper Washington Arubi’s move to the Green Machine was schemed and literally sealed well before the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco last December.
Arubi finally penned a two-year deal with Makepekepe yesterday as the Harare giants move to plug a gap in their goalkeeping department, which has been threatening to derail their title push.
The veteran shot-stopper is coming to replace Wallace Magalane, who has been sidelined for his culpability after making a significant number of elementary and comical errors, much to the detriment of CAPS United over the past weeks.
As a result, the Green Machine have now dropped, right from leading the Premiership race with two points, to being off the pace by nine points.
And Arubi will now be expected to bring his wealth of experience, which he has gathered right from his days at Lancashire in the early 2000s to the 13 years he has spent playing in the South African top-flight league.
He was already on pre-season with Marumo Gallants in South Africa with contract renewal talks on when his agency picked up that Makepekepe had axed Magalane on Sunday.
“This move for Arubi was a long time coming. We literally sealed it before the AFCON finals in Morocco,” revealed Jere.
“He was waiting for us to make the move because I had messages from him when he texted that he wanted to come back home from South Africa and be at CAPS United.
“When his agent realised that we had sidelined Magalane, they called me, and we arranged for him to fly in today for the signing. Here he is.
“I am happy to confirm that Arubi is now a CAPS United player after signing a two-year deal with us.
“We are here to win the championship, and Arubi’s coming is a bold move by the CAPS United leadership to bring smiles to the millions of CAPS United fans out there.”
Jere said Magalane’s latest in his catalogue of howlers wasn’t the final nail on the coffin, but rather his refusal to come back into the match when he had helped Triangle take a 2-1 lead to break hurt the CAPS United fraternity the most.
“We will continue giving Magalane his salaries, but what he did on Sunday was unacceptable.
“After making that error, he then refused to come back from the break even when the coach (Takesure Chiragwi) and the players convinced him to do so. The coach ended up taking an injured player (Stephen Kwaku) because Magalane had refused,” added Jere.
“It raises the emotions. You know, you’re playing with someone’s passion.
“Football is my passion. If you ask me how much I’ve put into this team over the years, it actually runs into millions of dollars. You know how much we spend every day. You don’t even know how much we spend here. You don’t know how much in salaries is paid to those players every month.
“CAPS United’s salary bill is $100,000 US dollars.
“If anyone is telling you stories that the boys are not being paid and have never missed a month, they are wrong. Those boys are getting paid every month. I’m talking about $100,000 US dollars, yes. If people think CAPS United players are not being paid, we are paying more than some of the teams you celebrate. We know that.
“That’s my salary bill — I’m paying for my passion. I enjoy it. I love it. And I’ll look back and I don’t even regret whatever investment I have put into football, because that’s my passion.
“Like right now, I’m enjoying what is happening today, and I should enjoy it all the way, even to match day. I should enjoy it all the way to the stadium. I don’t need to go there knowing that once we score, a few minutes later, within 10 minutes, we are going to concede a goal. No, no, no. That’s not what I’m paying for.
“I’m paying for this because I want to be happy. I want the CAPS United family to be happy. If those fans are happy, I’m very happy.”
For Arubi, the move to CAPS United underlines his legendary status, as he is set to become the first goalkeeper to have played for all the traditional big three in the local Premiership; Highlanders, Dynamos and CAPS United.
Arubi featured for both Highlanders and Dynamos and even won the Soccer Star of the Year accolade with the latter in 2011 before crossing the Limpopo in 2013.
He could have, in hindsight, been the second goalkeeper to play for all the three after Munyaradzi Diya but the Hardrock Goalkeepers’ coach only registered but never got to play for Makepekepe, having already featured for the other two giants.
“It’s really a good feeling, and I am ready for the job at hand,” said Arubi.
“I am happy to be joining CAPS United, and it’s a fulfilment of a dream. We talked about it with the president, Farai Jere sometime ago and today I am happy.”
Meanwhile, Makepekepe lost further ground in the title chase after dropping points in their 2-2 draw with Triangle at Rufaro on Sunday.
Their competitors for the championship, Scottland and Hardrock, registered comfortable wins over Manica Diamonds (5-0) and Chicken Inn (2-0), respectively.
The Green Machine are now nine points off the pace, and Chiragwi said: “I think there is still a lot of football to be played. We are down but not out.
“We will continue fighting for the badge and see where we will be at the end of the marathon. The coming in of Arubi will help us address one of our huge problems, and there is also another goalkeeper from Botswana who is coming.”
