This boy is special

Bothwell Mahlengwe
The last time I wrote on the way Dynamos were treating Kallisto Pasuwa, I was labelled an enemy by some influential people in the club’s set up. Even some sections of the supporters said I had a soft spot for the bearded lanky coach because they assumed we are close buddies.

When I argued that Pasuwa was robbed of the 2014 Coach of the Year award, I lost a few friends in the media.

They felt I had trampled on a system they are part of, a system they felt had been tried and stood the test of time. But I felt I was exercising my right as a football fan and columnist. After all who said the status quo shouldn’t be challenged?

Many argued that Pasuwa doesn’t have a clear system of play and his charges’ display was nothing to write home about.

In short, his game is boring, un-entertaining to say the least, so they said. Some said he was just a lucky person.

I have always believed and still believe that you make out your own luck and ‘fortune favours the brave’. And brave is what Pasuwa has proved to be. Making out his luck has been Pasuwa’s trademark in the short stint he has been head coach, either at club level or at national level.

At club level, he led Dynamos to four consecutive league championships, winning the title on the last day at every turn. In 2011, he snitched FC Platinum to the finishing line. In 2012, it was Highlanders who lost out. In 2013, it was Harare City’s turn. And when ZPC Kariba seemed to have but all bagged it last season, Pasuwa did the unthinkable to win the league championship for the unprecedented fourth consecutive time.

In all these seasons, he showed bravery by not panicking even when the odds were against him. Last year, ZPC Kariba was on a roll in the season’s final stretch and even beat Dynamos in their second last game.

All they needed was a point from the CAPS United match, something that seemed so obvious for many football fans. Coupled with the problems that were besieging CAPS United then that seemed like a very easy task. The league championship was as good as ZPC Kariba’s. Many Dynamos’ supporters, me included had lost hope. But not Pasuwa. He had set his lucky stars in motion, waiting for a ZPC Kariba’s slip up. And slip up, they did and the rest is history, as they say. That feat, of four consecutive league championships has set him apart from the rest in Zimbabwe football history. All in all a haul of 12 trophies in four seasons made him a rare and special coach on the domestic scene.

That he is the best to ever grace the domestic scene is a very much debatable issue but the statistic of an average of three trophies a season in his short four-year stint as a club coach gives him the crown.

As if that is not enough, luck seems to have followed him at national level. When the Young Warriors were paired against Cameroon in the final round of the All-Africa games 2015, not many gave them any chance of qualifying.

The confusion and the never-ending bungling by ZIFA in the build-up to the two legs made everyone lose the little hope that we had given the Young Warriors for an upset.

The first leg was riddled with battles for players between clubs and Pasuwa. Among the big clubs, only Dynamos released the full set that Pasuwa had called up for national duty. Caps United, Highlanders and FC Platinum played hard ball. Under the circumstances, Pasuwa showed great bravery and self-belief, didn’t complain and managed to beat Cameroon by a slender one-nil win.

As if the chaos that preceded the first leg was not enough, the second leg was worse until an impasse was reached between clubs and the Young Warriors technical team. That forced Pasuwa and company to travel to Cameroon with a depleted side.

Like the biblical David, Pasuwa’s boys forced a draw against the mighty Cameroon and with that a ticket to the African Games finals in September this year.

Not many had given Pasuwa’s charges a chance to get a result in Cameroon. In fact, people expected a humiliating massacre. But as usual, ‘lady luck’ smiled on Pasuwa and he led our Young Warriors to victory, something that we have been missing on the international scene for a long time. That he did it at the expense of the much fancied Cameroon makes the victory sweeter. Still, other people do not believe that Pasuwa is a great coach. They can’t seem to imagine him being the Warriors head coach. But results don’t lie. And results on the ground are a clear testimony that Pasuwa is a great coach — a rare and special breed that produces results even under the most difficult of conditions — one that doesn’t give excuses.

My thinking is that such breed should be preserved, nurtured and developed to reach the best that they can be. It will be beneficial to the nation.

Already, the talk is that he should take over as the Warriors coach and I am in full support of that because I believe in Pasuwa’s abilities. He has proved that he is a winner and a fighter. And what choice do we have?

What we can only hope for is that this ZIFA can get to do something right this time around. Pasuwa needs development beyond what is currently on offer in the country at the moment.

The ZIFA and CAF run coaching clinics have proved that they are not beneficial to the overall development of our game and needs to be seriously looked into. So Pasuwa needs more.

Just compare the quality of our coaches with Kelvin Kaindu. You can tell from the work that he is doing at Triangle that UEFA badges give you more, more in terms of football knowledge development, player development and management, environment adaptability and improvisation, and mostly personal development.

Football Association of Zambia went to great lengths and identified coaches with potential and sent them to Europe for development. Kaindu is one of those and he is here by God’s design to show us the direction. It’s not mere coincidence.

This is the same route we have to take if we are to develop our coaches to World class levels. Besides, a coach with a UEFA badge commands more respect from all players regardless of where they ply their trade than one with ZIFA and CAF badges. And that respect is key for a player-coach relationship to yield fruits. Who follows the orders of someone whom he doesn’t believe in? Pasuwa is a special gem but we have to realise that he is still not fully refined. He needs some more polishing and that cannot be achieved with what we have locally. He needs to go where the best are made. And we should not hide behind monetary constraints because money was made available to take some people to the 2014 World Cup.

Bothwell Mahlengwe is a banker and former Premiership footballer and can be contacted, for comment, on the [email protected]