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Eddie Chikamhi
Senior Sports Reporter
THE failure by Zimbabwean player intermediaries to broker meaningful deals in Europe and other lucrative leagues has exposed one of the biggest handicaps domestic football faces, resulting in talented players failing to realise their full potential.
The accredited local intermediaries are often pushed out of business by their South African counterparts, who appear more organised and well connected.
As a result, the bulk of Zimbabwean players, who pass through South Africa, end up dumping the Zimbabwean agents, who mostly are not capacitated to look beyond South Africa, Zambia and Tanzania.
South Africa has been the traditional market for local football talent but a new frontier has opened in Zambia and Tanzania. But the agents have not been able to look beyond the African borders. As a result, these placements cannot compare to the multi-million-dollar deals that foreign agents have managed to get for some of the Zimbabwean players abroad.
The Zimbabwean players that still made it to Europe and other lucrative foreign destinations were represented by foreign agents.
Warriors skipper Knowledge Musona, who spent 10 years in Europe before moving to Saudi Arabia recently, is under the wings of South African Mike Makaab of Pro-Sport International.
China-based forward Nyasha Mushekwi has for a long time also been represented by Makaab’s Pro-Sport International.
Olympique Lyon forward Tino Kadewere is represented in France by Jihed Taniche of PPM.
Teenage Hadebe, who recently moved to the US Major League Soccer after signing for Dynamos Houston, is represented by Bevan Dicks of African Stars Management based in Cape Town, South Africa.
He is the same agent who sent Marshall Munetsi to France, where the versatile midfielder is enjoying his game at Ligue One side, Stade de Reims. Midfielder Marvelous Nakamba, who signed a £12 million deal with English Premier League side Aston Villa two years ago, is managed by DW Sports Management. Warriors poster boy Khama Billiat has been under Michael Ngobeni’s MSport Management until recently. He is now being managed by Zimbabwean promoter Godfrey Bakasa.
The foreign agents have often capitalised on the opportunities in lower leagues of the Eastern and Central Europe and the Scandinavian countries which have not been exploited.
The pair of Zambian players Enock Mwepu and Partson Daka, who are set for English Premiership debuts in the forthcoming season, began at the bottom.
The two Zambian players started off with Austria second tier side FC Liefering before moving to the Austrian Bundesliga with RB Salzburg.
Daka signed a five-year-deal, thought to be worth £22m, with Leicester City while midfielder Mwepu (21) has just joined another English Premiership side Brighton and Hove after signing on a four-year deal from RB Salzburg for a reported £13m.
The duo are under 12 Man Management. Former Malian footballer Frederic Kanoute is the owner and chief executive officer of the agency. He also has a Zambian scout in his team, Benjamin Siwale, who mainly does the talent identification in Zambia.
Millionaire players like Kadewere, Nakamba and Mushekwi have used a similar route to the top. After playing for Mamelodi Sundowns in South Africa, Mushekwi found himself moving to Belgium at Oostend.
He then went to Swedish club Djurgardens IF before moving to China’s Dalian Yifang and then Zhezhiang Greentown, where he is enjoying both success and fortune.
Mushekwi’s success at Djurgardens opened up the way for Kadewere who came in as his replacement. He then moved to the second tier of French football and scooped the Golden Boot award. A massive deal awaited him at Lyon. Aston Villa midfielder Nakamba started his career off in the domestic Premiership, making his senior side debut at the age of 16 years for Bantu Rovers in 2010.
By the end of 2012, he was on trial at Nancy in Ligue 1. The trial would soon turn into a permanent move and Nakamba would spend the next two seasons playing for Nancy’s second team and made two appearances for the first team in Ligue 2.
The 2014/15 season would bring Nakamba a fresh start as he was signed by Vitesse in the Eredivisie in the Netherlands on a free transfer.
Even though Nakamba only made eight appearances for the senior team, he was starting to show the potential that brought him to Europe. The 2015/16 season turned into Nakamba’s breakout season, as he made 31 appearances in the Eredivisie for Vitesse and was considered by their fans as one of their better performers.
With these impressive performances, Nakamba made a move to Club Brugge in Belgium for a fee of around £2.7 million and again won silverware. The Zimbabwean international was integral to Club Brugge’s 2017/18 Jupiler Pro League winning season.
Nakamba made 35 league appearances and 44 overall for Brugge and the links to big clubs started flying in from all over Europe, ranging from Liverpool to Galatasaray.
There are other Zimbabweans who could have played at the top in Europe with better representation.
At his peak, Khama Billiat could not have been lost in one of the big leagues in Europe. He easily eclipsed players like Keegan Dolly and Percy Tau at Sundowns but these were still able to make the Europeans breakthrough while he did not because they were well represented.
Aces Soccer Youth Academy have been making their small efforts in linking up with European clubs. They have placed their young players in Europe through agents and have also forged deals with institutions in Europe.
In 2017 they entered into an agreement with Spanish side Malaga City, and have since sent four young players to their vibrant development side.
The players who benefitted from this deal include Warriors goalkeeper Martin Mapisa, who is now playing for Zamora CF on the Spanish third tier, Abubakar Moffat, Nicholas Guyo and Kundai Mukweva.
AYSA founder and director, Nigel Munyati, said players sometimes needed to adopt a tough mentality in order to take up opportunities rather than choosing to remain in the comfort zone.
“Sometimes there are some players who miss their opportunities. We sent (Wisdom) Mutasa and (Walter) Musona to Slovakia and you know what happened? They didn’t like it there. “Every player’s dream right now is to play in Europe and sometimes you have to start at the bottom. But for them it wasn’t good enough,” said Munyati.
Online Reporter