adminBruce Chikuni
FC PLATINUM coach, Norman Mapeza appears to be a firm believer in superstition.
Mapeza’s success has been attributed to his tactical approach but strangely his pair of Adidas sneakers are emerging as his superstition.
He has been wearing them in every game, since 2016, when the miners brought the championship for the first time to the Midlands.
They became the first team, from outside Harare and Bulawayo, to win the league title in more than half-a-century.
He also took his sneakers to South Africa, when he made his first foreign breakthrough as a coach, when he joined Chippa United in 2019.
He then took them on his maiden appearance at AFCON, in Cameron, as head coach of the Warriors.
Television images confirmed they were the same pair of sneakers.
Mapeza is not the type of coach who talks a lot about his life.
He makes it even difficult for one to know his choices, when it comes to fashion, as he prefers to put on the club’s kit, each time on the touchline.
It’s not known if he has many pairs of the same shoe which he could have been rotating for the past eight years.
However, there is no harm in being superstitious in the dugout.
In Europe, Joachim Low wore a cashmere V-neck sweater during the 2010 World Cup finals.
It proved to be a lucky charm, whenever he wore it, his team scored four times (4-0 against Australia), (4-0 against England) and (4-0 against Argentina).
The sweater is now part of relics of the Museum of the German Football Federation in Dortmund.
In Africa, a French coach, Harve Renard, was known for his trademark white shirt when he won AFCON with Zambia in 2012.
He continued with his white shirt superstition during his stints with Cote d’Ivoire, winning another Nations Cup title, Morocco and recently with Saudi Arabia.
Online Reporter