Online Reporter
Lawrence Moyo
SOME of the country’s top coaches turned up at Prince Edward High School this week during the three-day finals of the Betterbrands Cup in search of emerging talent as 40 schools battled for glory.
The inaugural tournament, a successor to the old NASH Coca Cola Cup, attracted huge crowds and among them were coaches and scouts from both Zifa and clubs from the Premier League to lower divisions.
Allan Wilson clinched the Nash Under-20 title after beating Rusunguko 3-2 on penalties following a goalless draw while Chiedza Primary from Norton lifted the NAPH Under -14 title.
Among the coaches seen at Prince Edward over the three days of the finals were Hardrock’s entire technical department led by Kelvin Kaindu, Simba Bhora’s Mandla Mpofu, Scottland Academy’s technical department led by Brenna Msiska and scout, Tonderai Mutambikwa and FC Hunters’ Nesbert “Yabo” Saruchera.
Also present were former Yadah, Dynamos and Triangle coach Thomas Ruzive, Fungai “Tostao” Kwashi, Blackfield Chivenga and David Sengu.
Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education permanent secretary, Moses Mhike watched proceedings on Tuesday when teams battled it out in the knockout stages and revealed Zimbabwe champions, Scottland were among the clubs hunting for talent.
“I was just talking to colleagues from Scottland FC, they were telling me already, they have identified about nine or 10 very good players that they are going to be integrating in their own academy. And I think this is what we want.
“And I know there are also quite a number of other clubs that are also here that could also be scouting talent,” said Mhike.
Mhike added that they are pushing to have football played all year round as opposed to just the second term as has been the case all along.
“I think as we move in 2027, you remember when we signed our own agreement with Zifa, we made a commitment that we are going to be playing soccer throughout the year.
“Yes, here and there we will have difficulties maybe because of our infrastructure during the rain season, but I think we will really want to continue and abide by that kind of agreement that we have signed.”
Looking at the Betterbrands Cup, Mhike said the ministry is grateful for the tournament and singled out Betterbrands Investments chairman, Pedzai “Scott” Sakupwanya for special mention.
“I’m really very grateful to Honourable Scott for coming on board, for showing his passion in terms of sports, soccer in particular and as a ministry, we would really want to give them more mileage. We are going to be having a much, much better and a bit more funded soccer tournament next year.
“We would also wanted to have had a select team from both the NAPH and NASH so that they can also be able to play with the Scottland FC Academy just to cement the whole partnership and then we go back to the drawing board.
“We would really want to thank Betterbrands for coming on board to sponsor schools’ soccer. This sponsorship has brought a lot of ease in terms of management and in terms of talent identification because you would understand, as a ministry, we didn’t have any dedicated line item for sponsoring soccer in our schools.
“I would really want to thank our parents because they have been the ones that have been sponsoring all our sporting activities in our schools and the coming on board of such a brand gives impetus to sport development and I hope if we can then be able
to get more in other sports like rugby, tennis and swimming.
“We need more and more of what has generally been done by Betterbrands because it will make talent identification and nurturing very easy as the resources will be available.
“And one of the things that we also really want to thank Betterbrands is the way I think they have supported, including looking after the players. I think you can see right from the kids themselves, from the food, from the transportation, they’ve given us everything.
“And to me, I can’t be more grateful than I think we have seen. This is how we can only be able to develop sports in Zimbabwe and we can then begin to have players that can now be able to compete regionally and internationally.”
Mathew Masinge