Online Reporter
Tadious Manyepo
Zimpapers Sports Hub
LLOYD MUTASA kept on referencing success stories posted by players he helped nurture in the past to motivate his MWOS youngsters.
The former Dynamos and Tanganda midfielder has received rave reviews after guiding the Nortonians to league silver in a season the team was supposed to be playing division one football.
Despite winning three titles across two First Division regions, the Premier Soccer League championship keeps on eluding the former Dynamos midfielder.
But that cannot take out the genius in him when it comes to identifying and moulding raw talent.
It is his hands that polished one of the best players to come out of the local league, Denver Mukamba back in his days at Kiglon and later on at Dynamos.
Former Warriors captain and Kaizer Chiefs midfield stalwart Willard Katsande also came through Mutasa’s grind at Highway.
Directing proceedings at ambitious MWOS, Mutasa’s relentlessness in churning out talent into the main football panorama is evident, with players like Nigel Matinha and Matthew Murambiwa appearing to be headed for the sky.
Mutasa, a shrewd player back in his days at both Tanganda and DeMbare, said it’s now easy for him to encourage unheralded players under his wings to aim higher as he just points to his CV.
He led MWOS to a strong second-place in the 2025 league season much to the surprise of many given the team’s circumstances.
Having failed to clip promotion from the Northern Region Soccer League in 2024, the Punters were bracing for a third term in the second tier and hoping to finally win the ticket to the top-flight.
Mutasa, who led the Norton side to second place in the NRSL 2024, coming second to Scottland, had been tasked with preparing for the first division onslaught.
But suddenly a window to play in the top-flight opened after ZPC Hwange decided to sell their franchise to MWOS.
It was already too late for Mutasa to go into the market and get proper Premiership stuff as most players had been latched onto by Scottland, Manica Diamonds and TelOne.
“I just had to work around with the mentality of those I already had in the team,” Mutasa said during ZTN Prime’s premium football show, The Couch, recently.
“The players I had were meant to help us get promotion from the NRSL.
“We never thought of playing in the Premiership so we were wiring ourselves for the Division One battles.
“When I was told to change plan and tact for the Premiership, I just thought, well, this is the situation I now have to deal with.
“The market had already been raided and we couldn’t do anything.
“Luckily we managed to sign Valentine Katsande and Innocent Zambezi.”
But the MWOS management never exerted pressure on the gaffer as they merely asked him to fence off the team’s Premiership logo.
And the message almost worked magic as MWOS nearly won the league title with the same players who were meant to play Division One football minus the last-minute move.
Mutasa said: “It wasn’t that difficult to motivate the players. I sat them down and said, “look guys, this is the opportunity for you to shine on a grand scale.”
“Instead of toiling in the first division, just shine in the Premiership. I kept on referencing the likes of Denver Mukamba, Thomas Magorimbo and Willard Katsande among others as players who were unknown, but ended up captaining the national team and shining at the highest level.
“That message was well received, I suppose, and at the end of the day, I saw everyone at MWOS displaying so much hunger despite their obvious lack of experience.
“I think it’s that message that drove us to being runners-up at the end of the marathon more than anything else.”
Yet the Punters took the Premiership by storm, topping the standings after going unbeaten for the first 17 games of the race.
“Like I have said, we didn’t have experience in our team. Also, we were very thin in terms of depth,” added Mutasa.
“Look, we had only the first 11. So after Match Day 17, we lost Tinotenda Mutyambizi to suspension and Murambiwa to injury.
“That changed everything and we lost to Ngezi Platinum. Our lack of depth really told the whole story but I would like to salute all the youngsters we had for their heart.”
Besides acquiring Zambezi and Katsande who were free agents with the former snubbing an offer from his ex-club CAPS United, MWOS also got Billy Veremu and Wilson Mensah on loan from Simba Bhora.
The quartet made a lot of difference, scoring 21 goals between them.
Mutasa did bring Aboubakar Moffat into the fold during the mid-season break with the ACES Youth Academy product bringing a lot of balance into the team.
In the end, MWOS provided two players on the 2025 Soccer Stars calendar, Veremu and Moffat, the same number as Scottland’s.
Mutasa said faith also played a huge role in the team’s unforgettable debut season.
“I believe in the Almighty God and the more my players saw me expressing that faith, the more they started to also tap into it. At the end of the day, everyone was prayerful and it really helped and it helps actually,” he said.
Defender Zambezi, who had one of his best seasons since announcing his Premiership arrival with Harare City eight years ago said: “The coach (Mutasa) is a prayerful man. He actually converted some of us and I think that collective faith helped us move mountains that saw us coming second in the league.
“We had a team full of greenhorns. But the coach kept on telling us about the potential which the players had which could be converted into remarkable things.
“Belief crept in and we started to play for each other. With a bit of luck, maybe, we could have won the league.”
Unlike last season, Mutasa is now starting the race from the same wave length as others and it remains to be seen how MWOS will fare in 2026.
