Kadewere happy in Sweden

Grace Chingoma Sports Reporter
IN the year that some of his compatriots have found the going tough in Europe, Swedish-based Zimbabwe youth international Tino Kadewere has a refreshingly positive tale to tell about life at his new club Djurgårdens IF where he has settled down well and recently signed a four-year deal. Kadewere, one of the brighter prospects of Zimbabwean football at the moment said this week that after enduring a difficult start he has been receiving rave reviews from the club’s coaches.

Unlike his fellow Young Warriors internationals – Ronald Pfumbidzai, Walter Musona and Wisdom Mutasa – who cut short their stay in Europe, Kadewere has soldiered on and is now reaping the fruits f his perseverance.

“It was hard for me at the start but I did not take much time to adjust and get into the groove. “The training there is perfect, it is now professional football compared to here,” he said. The former Harare City forward is back home at his parent’s home in Highfield, just a stone’s throw away from Highfield High I school, where his late father Onias’ academy – Highfield Academy – is based.

This academy is where Kadewere cut his football teeth before moving to Prince Edward for his secondary education.

Kadewere could not hide his delight about his new life in Europe.

“Usually, when it is training days, my day begins when I wake up at 7am. I live alone so I first tidy up my place, have breakfast then go out for training. I have to be there by 8.30am because we start the training at 8.45 and we start with a meeting for 15 minutes of what we did the previous day and what we are going to do on the day.

“We go back to the changing rooms then start at 9.30 am up to 11.30. As for me the coaches want me to work extra hard and I work an extra hour alone where I will be working in the gym,” said Kadewere.

The lanky striker says he met with a lot of change compared to what he was used to at Harare City. “In terms of concentration and focus they are more professional. “From Monday up to Friday, at training you have to perform more than hundred percent to get a place in the team. “Here at times you would see that training sessions as players we would take them a bit casually at times and know that you have a place in the team.

“We train techniques, drills and play small sided games. We don’t play 11 versus 11 in Sweden at training. “And also during sessions we don’t get to run something like 100m, we just run with the ball because in a game situation that is what you would be doing for the entire match and you don’t just run continuously but you would be with the ball.

“It is different from what we do here. The training is good and my extra work is more of strength like working in the gym because I need to work on my body and after that I have my lunch at the club,” he said.

The young striker speaking in the presence of his mother Mavis, wife Sharon and two brothers could not hide his joy about his new found status.

“Uuuuum the food there is nice. Most of the stuff I don’t even know what it is.

“The lady who prepares the food at the club house I have since nicknamed her “Goody Goody” and everyone now calls her that because she prepares good food.

“After lunch either I go home or hang out with my best friend whom I refer to as a brother. “He is a player from Gambia, Omar and when I arrived he was best friends with Nyasha Mushekwi so when Nyasha left he said he had left him with another right hand man and we have become close,” said Kadewere.

The former Harare City striker said he owes his success to his late father, Onias, who was his greatest mentor.

“My father taught me to be patient in everything I do and focus on my goal. At Prince Edward whenever we played games, he would come and observe and when we got home, he would then ask me what is it that I think I have contributed in that match.

“We would then discuss and he would then tell me what I did wrong or right and what I should improve on. “He would always give me advice,” he said. Coming from a footballing family where he is the last born in a family of four boys, Kadewere believes he is never short on advice.

His father was the chairman of the ZIFA Harare Province coaches and was also instrumental in the creation of High Glen League which he was also the chairman before he passed on in January this year.

Tino’s siblings, Prosper, Prince and Pardon are all involved in football coaching and the administration of the Highfield Academy.

Kadewere said he has good working relationships with his coach Per Olsson and the manager who was the first to receive him at the airport when he arrived in Stockholm.

“At first I always felt that the assistant coach was my favourite and he really liked me to the extent that whenever he was not around at training I would feel his absence but as time went on I discovered that the coach was my best.

“This other time the coach came to me and told me that Tino, I have never a seen a striker who, one has strength, two, control and three has shooting skill.

“I have never seen a complete striker with all the attributes, who can also run and mark as well.

“I go into tackle, I am good at that. He says I am a complete player.

“But he says I still need to improve on my strength as the play the game there is more physical and this is why I have remedial work to do.

“Even this off season, I brought extra work to do everyone was given his programme to work on.

“These guys rely on basic things and as a striker you can score and have pace but if you fail some of the basic stuff for instance, your first touch, as a striker not knowing where to stand when you don’t have ball possession, then you will have a problem with them ,” he said.

While Kadewere has only featured in three league games and one Cup game since arriving at the club it is his achievement in the Under-21 developmental side which has earned him rare reviews leading to him getting a contract after he had gone to the club on a loan from Harare City.

He has featured in five matches and scored four goals for the developmental side which has an organized league drawing all the league clubs’ Under-21 sides.

Kadewere believes the biggest advantage he had at Djurgårdens IF was that Mushekwi who was also on loan at that club before he returned to South Africa gave a good account of himself making it easy for him.

“Nyasha had put Zimbabwe on the map and my welcome from everyone at the club was just great.

“He was very helpful, he would always guide me and taught me a lot. He is a good guy in fact I would say he set up everything for me because when I arrived he had done all the work for me so I arrived with everyone expecting another Zimbabwean striker and the welcome was just rousing.

“He is strong can score and can run,” said Kadewere.