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Ray Bande
Senior Reporter
MUTARE Castle Lager Premiership outfit, Manica Diamonds’ chief striker, Donald Ngoma, is aiming at hitting the nets not less than 18 times by the time the curtain comes down on the 2023 season.
By aiming to score 18 goals, in essence, Ngoma is angling himself for the 2023 Castel Lager Premiership golden boot award, given the average number of goals that are being scored by eventual winners of that coveted gong.
Last year, CAPS United’s William Manondo won the top goal scorer’s award with 17 goals.
Said Ngoma: “All I want is for my team to win as many matches as we can. Football is a team sport, hence the success of the team matters more to me than anything else.”
Pestered on how many goals he intends to score for the oncoming season, Ngoma said: “I want to double the numbers from last season. That is my wish. I will certainly work extra hard to achieve that and God will do the rest.”
Last season, Ngoma scored nine goals for Triangle.
Scoring 18 goals in a season is a feat that is really not beyond his reach, given that the free scoring striker once banged a total of 23 goals when he was still turning out for Young Africans in Tanzania in all competitions of the 2015-2016 season.
After all, the experienced striker has seen it all at the highest level of the game on the domestic scene and beyond after being part of the 2011 Castle Lager Premiership runners-up and Chibuku Super Cup winners with FC Platinum.
That same year he was on the soccer stars of the year calendar.
Ngoma twice won the Vodacom Premier Championship with Young Africans in Tanzania and is also a two-time Azam Federation Cup winner – one of the most watched competitions in Tanzania after the NBC Premier League.
Manica Diamonds started their preseason preparations with a camp in Chiredzi and played friendly matches with GreenFuel last week on Saturday at Mutare Showground and newly promoted Simba Bhora at the same venue yesterday (Thursday).
Their coach, Jairos Tapera, expressed satisfaction at the progress that his team has been showing since the start of the off-season preparations.
“Our first friendly match was not bad at all. We are trying to find the best combination in defence, midfield and up front. Transition in all departments has to be worked on, but they were many positives. We are hopeful that with more friendly matches we will come right,” said the former Triangle gaffer.
Commenting on the positives drawn from the friendly matches against GreenFuel, Tapera said: “Our keeping of possession was very encouraging. The movements with or without the ball was not bad and starting play was better as well.”
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