Chronicle Editor
Lovemore Dube
ZIMBABWE and Highlanders Football Club legend Alexander Maseko has urged the Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) to consider a former Warriors player with the right profile and exposure for the national team coach job.
Zifa are in the hunt for national team coaches and the Normalisation Committee recently flighted advertisements.
Maseko said it is important to get it right from the onset and ensure the country raises its stock in international football with a sound backing of development programmes and a coach with an appreciation of the country’s football settings and culture.
He said there are many former players with coaching credentials who could coach the Warriors.
Maseko said some of these former players have the right resume to unlock commercial value during their tenure as they have access to vast football ecosystem and contacts globally.
“We have former Warriors players who have won big abroad, players who have played for top clubs at a very high level. In the dressing rooms they have shared the locker room with guys of influence in today’s football,” he said..
Maseko said getting as many Zimbabweans to play abroad and improve the skills and competition base for the Warriors would be a plus.
“That will also help families and communities when more boys get to play professional football abroad and they return to enhance our national teams and help financially back home,” he said.
Methembe Ndlovu, Max Lunga, Kaitano Tembo, Wilfred and William Mugeyi, George Mbwando, Norman Mapeza, Noel Kaseke, Bruce Grobbelaar and Ian Gorowa are some of the Zimbabweans who have played abroad and have coaching credentials.
Maseko gave an example of Grobbelaar’s stock.
“You know Bruce played in Canada for Vancouver Whitecaps, Liverpool and a couple of other clubs. He also played and coached in South Africa. Grobbelaar’s worldwide appeal as a legend is magic. He will get an audience in the football and corporate world and it’s the kind of turn around our football needs,” he said.
Maseko said there were many guys with international appeal who have played in South Africa and for the Warriors.
“There are guys like Norman, Lunga, Kaitano and young Methembe Ndlovu in the US. There is also Charles Mhlauri, Henry Moyo, Eddie Mukahanana, Phil Mbofana and others from Zimbabwe but none have Bruce’s profile to make a commercial and football appeal,” said the former Highlanders and Warriors centreback who also starred for Mamelodi Sundowns.
Maseko said the future lies in patience with who ever is given the job.
“He is not coming to achieve from an event but the success path should be a process where there is a road map with time lines until we reach the World Cup. But between now and then development is key and that means also placing our players abroad to play in top leagues and get the requisite experience to challenge players of other national teams who play in top divisions in Europe,” said Maseko.
He said the almost a dozen foreign coaches who have coached the Warriors have failed to deliver given their performance at Cosafa and Cecafa tournaments.
Maseko said local coaches had qualified for Afcon and Chan tournament finals.
Only Reinhard Fabisch managed to excite the corporate sector and Maseko believes Grobbelaar who had advertising gigs for shops such as Nyore Nyore could deliver if given a chance.
“This is the time for Zimbabweans to rally behind the national team project and the game in its entirety by placing the right man for the job,” said Maseko.
He is confident that Grobbelaar like other Zimbabwean coaches will not ask for an arm and a leg in terms of remuneration as there is always an element of patriotism.
Foreign coaches are known to demand salaries of over US$15 000 per month which our football environment cannot afford at the moment.
Maseko was among the foundation players of the Dream Team in 1991 before moving to South Africa.
He won almost every piece of silverware competed in Zimbabwe including the BAT Rosebowl, Chibuku Trophy, Castle Cup, Zifa Cup, Rothmans Shield, Independence, Heroes and the league title in 1990, the first by Highlanders since 1974.
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