Inspired to uplift young footballers

Ricky Zililo

AFTER completing morning school runs between Mondays and Fridays, retired footballer Mkhokheli Dube drives to the dusty grounds of Sizinda Youth Centre in Bulawayo to do what he loves most; coach young players.

It’s a routine that the 39-year-old former striker Dube developed when he retired in 2021 at a time he still felt his legs could carry him up to the age of 40.

Having had memorable spells at Bulawayo soccer giants Highlanders whom he helped to win three league titles, Dube hung his boots at his boyhood club Bosso following a trophy-laden 22-year playing career which took him to the United States of America and South Africa.

Now the former Young Warriors striker spends most of his time at the Zebra Revolution Football Club, a club he founded in 2015.

The Sizinda Youth Centre-based club has juniors which include the Under-11s, Under-13s, Under-15s and Under-17s. Footballers who graduate from their Under-17s go into their Division Two team which presently is on position seven in the Zifa Bulawayo Provincial league with 11 points from seven matches. They are four points behind leaders Chicken Inn.

Dube, who is known as “Mshoza” by his Zimbabwean peers and christened “Kheli” in the USA where he featured for American Major League Soccer (MLS) side New England Revolution between 2008 and 2011 takes pride in the work done by his Zebra Revolution.

“We started the project in 2015, with the whole idea being to empower youngsters from Sizinda, Tshabalala and Nkulumane to get an opportunity to play football as well as get education. So, what we’ve been doing with the boys is to give them an opportunity with the training and coaches that we have for them to enhance their performances and become complete footballers.

“The whole idea is to give these boys an opportunity and when we started in 2015 we had Under-12s. These are the boys who are now between the ages of 18-20 years old. We’ve seen the growth of this program and we’ve seen players emerging from the hard work that we’ve done. We look at Kim Joe Sibanda who is at Bulawayo Chiefs, we look at Maninja (Brighton Ncube) at Chicken Inn. These boys came through our programme and now we’ve William Zandira a goalkeeper training with Triangle United where there’s our product Njabulo “Tshiki” Ngwenya who has been a regular starter this season.

“So, with our vision, this is what we wanted to do. To give players an opportunity to go to the PSL and we’ve got a good squad this season for our Division Two and I foresee a couple of guys going the PSL way,” Dube said.

The former Highlanders striker who returned from the United States to Africa to play in the South African Premiership for AmaZulu in 2012 where his stay was short-lived coming back home to join Chicken Inn in 2013, said his experience has been handy in producing players who jump First Division to the PSL.

“The trick is simple, I’ve played professionally, we’ve got coach Mtewa Masuku (former Highlanders and Railstars player) who played professional football as well. So, it’s easy for us to know the road to success. So we teach them the basics and if you look at the top level, it’s about the basics and paying attention to detail. We teach them from a young age, the training we’re doing is almost the same as those in the PSL, so it becomes easy for these youngsters to get on well with the systems above,” said Dube.

Funding has been a constraint for the Zebra Revolution.

Dube expressed his gratitude to Sportszone which is run by Daniel Bingadadi, Depot Investments and Fudu Media who came in last year to assist the club.

He appealed for backing from well-wishers in the corporate world as well as individuals with passion in junior development.

“We start from the Under-11s. Our youngest player this year is four-years-old. So we start at a tender age, we accept anyone who loves football and it becomes easy when they start young so that they grow up with the culture of the project. We encourage parents to bring their kids and what we’re doing is for free.

“Our coaches volunteer. When they come here we tell them we can’t afford to pay them but they bring in their experience to shape the boys. What we do is that when there are coaching clinics we pay for their coaching courses. This is how we empower them.

“For any well-wishers who want to assist us, they’re free to do so. They can check our Facebook page; Zebra Revolution, check our Instagram to see where we are coming from and where we are. And we would love to see many sponsors to come and become part of our family,” Dube said.

Meanwhile, Dube is excited that through the contacts he established while playing in the US, one of his youngsters has been presented with an opportunity to travel to America on a football scholarship.

“We had a scholarship showcase in December and one of our boys had his interview yesterday (Tuesday). I feel like he did very well. With luck and prayers we’re hoping that in September one of our boys will be going to the US,” he said. — @ZililoR