adminSikhumbuzo Moyo Senior Sports Reporter
SEVEN football scouts were at the Ingwebu inter-schools National Association of Primary Heads (Naph) football finals for Bulawayo on Friday. The provincial finals were held at Barbourfields Stadium’s outside pitches and pitted 12 schools from the city’s five districts. There were six boys’ teams and an equal number of girls who were making their inaugural appearance at the 20-year-old football tournament.
Friday’s football jamboree saw six coaches from the city’s junior teams and a member of the Zifa high performance technical committee taking their time out in search of untapped and raw talent.
Bantu Rovers’ technical bench of head coach Methembe Ndlovu, an emerging junior football powerhouse not only in Bulawayo but in the country, his technical advisor Gift Lunga (Snr), Highlanders’ juniors coach Melusi ‘Mabaleka’ Sibanda, Zimbabwe Soccer Coaches Assocation Bulawayo Province secretary Marko Dube, Zisca’s national secretary and former Zimbabwe Saints defender Oscar Mazhambe and veteran coach and a member of the high performance committee Cosmas Zulu attended the Ingwebu Breweries sponsored football gala, whose finals will be held at Jotsholo Grounds on August 1.
Former Highlanders goalscoring sensation Tobias Mudyambanje also attended in his capacity as the Robert Tredgold Primary School technical advisor.
“This is where our future national team players are, we need to identify them at this early stage and what we have seen so far has really been impressive,” said Zulu.
Meanwhile, Robert Tredgold Primary School tore the history books apart by coming out tops in the boys’ finals, beating former winners and favourites Tategulu from Reigate district 1-0 through a goal from Garthel Green, son of Friends of Warriors president Lynn Green.
With the win, the Bulawayo Central district representatives will now represent Bulawayo at the finals in Jotsholo.
For their sweat, the winners went back to their school $1,200 richer.
Online Reporter