adminTakudzwa Chitsiga Sports Reporter
SOCCER Milities Academy were crowned the inaugural Daniel Bingadadi Under-15 football champions at Zimbabwe Grounds in Highfield on Saturday.
The Harare-based academy managed to beat CUMA Academy 5-3 in the penalty shoot-out after the final had ended in a goal-less draw after regulation time.
Third place went to Red Carpet who beat Knowe Academy from Norton 3-1.
Stanley Mutaputi of CUMA Academy was voted player of the tournament as Nigel Bingadadi and Tawanda Munzira, both of Soccer Milities, were voted goalkeeper and top goalscorer of the tournament respectively.
Mutaputi is showing a lot of potential after he also won the player of the tournament award when Walter Musanhu launched his Jadel Academy late last year. Munzira managed five goals during that tournament to win the golden boot. The Danial Bingadadi tournament is the brainchild of Daniel Bingadadi (Jrn) who is doing it in honour of his father, who he said was so into football development and he need to keep up his legacy.
Spearheaded by former Dynamos coach Lloyd “Mablanyo” Chigowe, the tournament had 16-teams from different provinces and it was Soccer Milities who come up winners.
The tournament was initially scheduled for last weekend but was postponed to this last Saturday and it was a hive of activity at Zimbabwe Grounds in Highfield.
Chigove said the level of competition was very high and the tournament went on well with all the teams who had confirmed their participation turning up.
“It was a big tournament which managed to draw teams from Mashonaland West which had three teams, Mashonaland Central one team, Mashonaland East two teams and Harare Province 10 teams.
“We are very happy with the progress and we hope to have more of these tournaments in future. I am grateful to Bingadadi for his efforts and we will continue to support them as we need to see football development at all age-groups. “There is a lot of talent which we need to expose and it is good that there are many academies focusing on soccer these days which is a welcome move,” said Chigowe.
The losing finalists director Herbert Manyowa said they are happy to have managed to reach the final and are hoping to have more tournaments like this one.
“The youngsters did very well and reaching the finals was no joke . . . they played well as a team. We hope to have many of these tournaments in future.
“We are grateful to the sponsor and hope we will continue to have such invites for different tournaments,” said Manyowa.
Bingadadi (Jnr) said he is happy and will continue to sponsor the event and make it an annual one. “I am very happy with the response we received and the support was good. I am looking forward to host another Under-14 tournament during the Easter holidays,” said Bingadadi (Jnr).
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