PSL no longer a two-horse race: Kaindu

Don Makanyanga-Zimpapers Sports Hub

BACK in 2011, when a fresh-faced Kelvin Kaindu first took the Highlanders job, Zimbabwe’s Premier Soccer League was a theatre dominated by the familiar heavyweights — Highlanders, Dynamos and CAPS United.

A decade on, the Zambian tactician says the playing field has shifted and with it, the very pulse of the domestic game.

Now back in charge of Bosso after rejoining the Bulawayo giants late 2023, Kaindu believes the PSL has evolved into a fiercely competitive battleground thanks largely to the emergence of well-resourced, ambitious clubs.

“I think in the past we would talk about Highlanders, Dynamos and CAPS United,” Kaindu said, reflecting on how things stood when he first arrived in Zimbabwe.

“These are brands that have been there in football for so many years.

“But with the coming in of these other teams that have come, maybe with a bit of resources, they have even made the competition to be a bit hard.”

Kaindu’s return to Highlanders saw him guide the team to a respectable sixth-place finish last season.

But more than his club’s fortunes, it’s the broader dynamics of the league that have caught his eye.

He pointed to the rise of teams like FC Platinum, Ngezi Platinum Stars, and new contenders such as Simba Bhora, Herentals, GreenFuel, TelOne and Scotland FC as signs that the PSL’s traditional order has been disrupted.

“We saw FC Platinum and Ngezi Platinum coming in. Now we have got Simba Bhora, we have got Scottland, we have got Herentals, we have got GreenFuel, TelOne . . . these are teams with strong financial backing,” Kaindu observed. “They have the capacity in terms of finances, they’re able to compete, able to get the player they want and yet we (the traditional giants) still remain there.”

For the veteran coach, money has not only changed the game it has levelled it.

It’s a shift that’s evident not just in results, but in the tightness of the current log standings. With league leaders Mwos perched at the top with 17 points, and bottom-placed Triangle still within touching distance on four points, Kaindu says the margins are too small to ignore.

“I think if you look at even the point difference, I think the team that is at the bottom has got four points and probably the team on top has got 17 points. That shows how close the league is,” Kaindu noted.

“I think it is open for any team. The competition is there.”

Indeed, the 2024 PSL season is shaping up to be one of the most unpredictable in recent memory.

The old narrative of a two- or three-team chase for the title is no longer valid.

Instead, fans are witnessing a new era one in which financial muscle, scouting strategy, and club organisation have become the great equalisers.

For Kaindu, who once presided over Bosso’s record-breaking 23-match unbeaten streak in 2012, the rise of new contenders isn’t a threat, it’s a welcome challenge.

“It pushes us,” he says. “And that’s what the game needs.”