Online Reporter
Tadious Manyepo
Zimpapers Sports Hub
JADEL Football Academy director Walter “Ringers” Musanhu said the ZIFA Munhumutapa Challenge Cup is the vitamins junior football in the country needed to totally transform the landscape.
The former Zimbabwe youth international has been drawing global headlines with his nursery, which is even more pronounced in Beijing, China, where over 23 nationalities are part of the project.
Musanhu took a front row seat during the launch of the Munhumutapa Challenge Cup by President Mnangagwa on Wednesday.
“That initiative is out of this world. I would like to salute the Government and ZIFA for coming up with that.
“For some of us, it’s like seeing what you have been dreaming of all your life unravelling right before your eyes.
“What the authorities have just done is ticking all the boxes which were blank all along when it comes to football development.
“I am emotional and at a loss for words when it comes to how I am feeling right now. I am certainly happy with everything. The work this ZIFA board has put in just one year is tremendous.
“As a proponent of youth football development, I am certainly happy to see gaps that I never thought would one day be filled being addressed.
“Our vision at Jadel FA where we have been progressively playing international tournaments with the aim of building foundational blocks for the Warriors’ bid to qualify for the 2034 World Cup speaks to what ZIFA have now established.
“We will work with them and I am glad they are so professional and willing to take up ideas.”
The Munhumutapa Challenge Cup will run for the next five years with a budget of US$5million per year and will incorporate junior and grassroots football where winners are not only guaranteed prize monies but are taken into age-group national teams and have their skillsets enhanced by experts.
