Luphahla believes in young players

Innocent Kurira, Sports Reporter
HIGHLANDERS assistant coach Joel Luphahla did what Bosso fans have always been clamouring for by fielding youngsters in the starting line-up.

Luphahla gave striker Mthabisi Ncube (18) his debut and also threw in Darlington Mukuli (22) into the starting line-up against Harare City in the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League match at Barbourfields Stadium on Sunday.

It was not a bad day in the office for both players in front of the Bosso faithful as they emerged 1-0 winners.

The duo is a product of the Bosso 90 project, which has been a subject of debate in recent years, with some doubting its relevance as players were failing to break into the starting 11 once promoted.

Those who have shown faith in the project were probably elated to see the two youngsters starting for Bosso.

Of late Bosso had been showing a clear reluctance to give junior players from their development structures a chance to prove themselves.

It seems Luphahla is a firm believer in the young talent hence he is giving an opportunity to junior players.

“I have always been a coach who believes in young players.

Every team that I coached, I have always played youngsters.

If you look at Harare City, they had five players that I previously coached as youngsters,” said Luphahla.

He said whenever there is a window, he will do his best to avail opportunities to junior players.

“On Sunday we gave an 18-year-old a chance to play and I am sure the boy will improve and get better.

These are players that are going to be here at Highlanders for a long time and I think it’s the right thing to do and the right direction to take,” said Luphahla.

This was, however, Luphahla’s last game in charge as interim coach as the new Brazilian coach Baltemar Jose De Oliveira Brito has now taken over.

Luphahla says the only way Highlanders can rise is to have faith in youngsters and that is unlikely to change.

“The coach is here to help us as a club and help me as a coach as well.

I think I will grow working under him.

We are going to have a meeting and I will present a report to him and from there we will see which route to take.

We want to fuse senior players and young players.

The coach has already talked of awakening the giant and that will not be possible to achieve without young players,” he said.

His­tory shows that High­landers’ focus on junior players and tal­ent devel­op­ment was the reason for the club’s dominance in topflight foot­ball at the turn of the cen­tury.

A num­ber of stars emerged from the much adored policy, with its last col­lect­ive achievement in the team’s memory being the pool that won the club’s last league cham­pi­on­ship in 2006.

Some products of that adored junior system include the likes of Thu­lani ‘Biya’ Ncube, Johannes Ngodzo, Siza Khoza, Gift Lunga Jr, Melusi Sibanda, Zenzo Moyo, Noel Kaseke, Hon­our Gom­bami and Simon Sibanda among others. — @innocentskizoe