Homela bemoans local league player quality

FORMER Warriors coach Gibson Homela says even if he were still in active coaching he would not be tempted to take the national team job given the quality of players he has seen in the local league.

Homela is a living soccer legend who starred for both Zimbabwe Saints and Zimbabwe in a career that started in 1963 and ended in 1982 with an injury. He was impressive as a striker and with pressure to prove to his teammates what he meant when he blamed them for goals, he switched to defence and never disappointed.

He was co-striker with the late Bobby Chalmers in 1969 when Rhodesia missed qualification by a whisker after holding Australia to two draws in the final qualifier for the 1970 World Cup finals.

Homela says the local league presently lacks quality players, a situation which he says would make it difficult for anyone to come up with a competitive national team, moreso given the country has been in the cold for the past two years owing to a suspension by Fifa.

He says it will take some time to catch up with the rest of the countries.

“I have watched Highlanders who are top of the table and they are not impressive. Some time I watch Dynamos and FC Platinum, they are even worse. None of the players deserve to be in the national team from those teams. Surprisingly these are top teams in the country. The quality of players for the national team is not there. The worrying part is that we will find it hard to play and win against other countries,” said Homela, a man never shy of telling it as it is.

Homela, who appeared on the Soccer Star of the Year calendar a number of times in his playing days, challenged players to up their game.

“The onus is on the players to improve themselves if they really want to be selected for the national team. There’s no way a coach will be happy with the low calibre of players we have. The players have to do extra work on their part,” said the former Zimbabwe rightback and Rhodesia left wing striker.

Homela is a former national team coach who was sent abroad to train in Germany by the national association.

He worked with some of the best players that include Stix Mtizwa, Shaky Tauro, Joel Shambo, Misheck Chidzambwa and Stanley Ndunduma.

He was manager of the first Zimbabwe team to win the Cosafa Castle Cup in 2000 working with Misheck Chidzambwa and Barry Daka.

The hunt for the Warriors job has begun with dozens of applications having been received from around the world as qualifiers for international tournaments will begin soon. Zimbabwe has been inactive from international football from February last year following suspension from the Fifa family after the international body deemed the Sport and Recreation Commission’s suspension of the Zifa board third party interference.

Fifa eventually gave in and put in place a Normalisation Committee headed by Lincoln Mutasa which will run the affairs of the game in Zimbabwe up to June 30, 2024.

Crowds have fallen because of the low entertainment value of the game.

ZIFA is hunting for new coaches for all the men’s and women’s national sides.

The country was last month re-admitted to international football after the lifting of the FIFA suspension, something that has excited Zimbabweans about the prospects of international football for their clubs and national teams.

Zimbabwe had been frozen out of the game following the suspension of the Felton Kamambo-led ZIFA board by the SRC.

The Warriors were immediately after the lifting of the suspension drawn in Group C alongside

Nigeria, South Africa, Benin Rwanda and Lesotho in the 2026 World Cup draw. – @innocentskizoe