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CHICKEN Inn Football Club have signed highly rated Swaziland-based Zimbabwean goalkeeper Pride Zendera (left) on a two-year contract.Chicken Inn chairman Lifa Ncube confirmed to Chronicle Sport that the former Moneni Pirates and Manzini Sundowns shot stopper is now in their books.
“Pride Zendera is now our player. We signed him on a two-year contract and he is already training with the first team. He is a very good and dependable goalkeeper and he adds depth to our goalkeeping department,” he said.
In an interview, Zendera declined to confirm that he had signed a contract with Chicken Inn. He, however, declared that he has returned home for good from Swaziland and was in talks with Chicken Inn.
Zendera joins Chicken Inn as a free agent as his contract with Manzini Sundowns has ended. He was offered the chance to extend his contract by Manzini Sundowns but he refused to sign an extension and made it clear to the club that he wanted out.
Zendera has been a long term Chicken Inn target as the club tried to sign him before the PSL season began but pulled out after Manzini Sundowns refused to let him go. Now that Zendera’s contract has expired, Chicken Inn have wasted no time to snap the impressive goalminder.
Zendera, known as “The Cool Cat” in Swaziland, said he was homesick and desperate to play for a club in Zimbabwe with Chicken Inn his favoured destination.
“I have been training with Chicken Inn for the past three days but I cannot tell you about the negotiations because my agent who is in Swaziland is the one who is handling all that. All that I can tell you is that if all goes well I will be playing for Chicken Inn in the second half of the season,” he said.
The agile Zendera said he was coming back home to seek new challenges.
“I believe I have achieved a lot in Swaziland and I have become a better goalkeeper and a better person. I am forever grateful to Moneni Pirates and Manzini Sundowns for improving me. Even though it hurts to leave Swaziland, I believe that it’s time I come back home. I want to play for the national team and I can only do that if I am playing at home.
“I am very confident that with time I will be rated as one of the best goalkeepers in Zimbabwe. In Swaziland I was the best but the league in Zimbabwe is far much better than the Swazi one. So if I want to be the best, I have to play with the best,” Zendera.
The Cool Cat was rated the number one goalkeeper in Swaziland for the past four years with former Warriors and AmaZulu defender, Golding Dube, who is based in Swaziland, at one time calling for the national team selectors to draft him into the Warriors’ squad.
“We should not wait for a coach from Mars to tell us that Zendera deserves to be in the Warriors squad. I have seen the boy and worked with him for seasons. He is a rare talent and could be the best goalkeeper our country has now. Our national selectors should therefore, cast their net wider and give him a call-up. It is players like him that will take our game back to the top,” Dube said.
So good was Zendera between the sticks that the Swaziland FA made numerous attempts to convince him to commit his international future to the Swaziland national team.
Unfortunately the 24-year-old goalkeeper swiftly rejected the overtures and made it known that he wants to play for Zimbabwe.
By returning home he has brightened his chances.
Online Reporter