adminFaith Mutema Sports Reporter
Epworth football fans are in for a treat this Saturday when they converge at Epworth High School for the finals of this year’s edition of the Mwalimu Kumbula Soccer Tournament.The finals are set to start at 9am.
The tournament is a brainchild of one of Epworth’s most illustrious sons — Musekiwa Kumbula — who named it after his son Mwalimu when he discovered the passion he had for football and felt the urge to uplift the community by giving opportunities to young, talented footballers there.
Musekiwa Kumbula is Innscor Group Corporate Affairs Executive.
The tournament was inaugurated last year with less than 20 junior and senior teams taking part, but this year’s event was bigger and better as a total of 38 sides took part in the knock-out stages.
This year, there were 18 teams in the seniors division, 10 in the Under-16s and an equal number in the Under-13s section.
Preliminary rounds of this tournament were held last week and six teams qualified for the finals in these three different categories.
In this Saturday’s finals at Epworth High School, Epworth Pools are going to take on Chiremba FC in the seniors section with Young Arrows clashing against Young Stars in the Under-16 final.
The Under-13 final will feature Epworth Starlets and Young Stars.
Chairperson of the Epworth Sports Association and the event’s co-ordinator, Shepherd Mudzamiri, said all the participating teams were ready and the event was expected to kick-off as planned.
“The event is only for the teams that have qualified for the finals and they have shown some great talent during the preliminary rounds during the previous weekend.
“We have invited many prominent guests, including ZIFA representatives, Epworth Local Board members, Member of Parliament for Epworth and also Harare City midfield star Ronald Chitiyo, who was also present during last year’s inaugural tournament and we are likely to witness some young footballers performing to the best of their abilities,” he said.
Chitiyo also hails from Epworth.
Mudzamiri said there were going to give out prizes to both the winning teams and individuals.
The prizes include football kits, training bibs, trophies for first position winners, footballs for all teams that participated, medals and shields for individuals.
Mudzamiri said the tournament will help them to identify talented soccer players from Epworth.
“Our goal as an association is to see to the creation of a strong team from this town that will play at Premier League level in the future and with the help of the local authorities, we have also started the development of an OlympAfrica Centre in Epworth, which will also go a long way in helping us to identify talented athletes in other sporting disciplines,” said Mudzamiri.
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