adminCollin Matiza Sports Editor
FIVE Zimbabwean football coaches are undergoing a 10-day UEFA B Level coaching course in Germany where they are honing their coaching skills under one of that country’s top trainers — Rudy Raab.
Raab is a former player of German Bundesliga club Union Berlin and coach of their Under-17 team. He is also employed by the German Football Federation as an instructor.
And this Monday saw Raab taking 10 aspiring foreign coaches under his wing for a 10-day UEFA B Level coaching course, which is set to run until February 6 in Berlin.
And, among his protégés are five Zimbabwean coaches — Panashe Kuzamba, Keith Elijah, Brighton Makwedza, Phillip Zulu and his son Martin. They are attending the course with six other foreign coaches from Australia, Seychelles and Madagascar.
Speaking from Berlin yesterday, one of the course’s co-ordinators, Bernd Wulffen of Young Talent Sports Foundation, said this was one of their many initiatives aimed at empowering foreign coaches and teaching them the philosophies of German football.
“This is a UEFA B Level coaching course and we have 10 coaches from Zimbabwe, Australia, Seychelles and Madagascar.
‘’We would have loved to have more coaches for this course, especially those from Zimbabwe, but I understand that some of the coaches from Zimbabwe that we had invited to attend this course could not make it because of financial constraints.
“So, we ended up having five Zimbabwean coaches, who are being led by Phillip Zulu who is based in the UK and is heavily involved in scouting and coaching young players, and we think their presence here will help to turn them into good, experienced professional coaches in the not-too-distant-future.
“We also have Phillip Zulu’s son, Martin, who is on the books of German lower division side FC Bayern Alzenau which he joined in July this year and signed a one-year contract which ends in July this year but he also wants to get his coaching badges while he is still a player which is good for him.
“This coaching course is being conducted by Rudy Raab who is one of the best instructors in Germany and he is currently employed by the German Football Federation who have sanctioned this course in which the coaches will get their UEFA B Level coaching licences at its completion on February 6,” Wulffen told The Herald from Berlin yesterday.
Phillip Zulu said the course is proving to be an eye-opener for them.
“This UEFA B licence course is an intensive programme for top-flight football coaching and it’s a massive opportunity for us to further develop into good professional coaches.
‘’The curriculum is wide, and it has every aspect of technical training, managing players, session planning, game analysis and management.
“There’s also a session on how to handle the Media etc,” Phillip Zulu said.
Black Rhinos head coach, Herbert Maruwa, and Dynamos gaffer, Tonderai Ndiraya, were also expected to attend this 10-day coaching course. “Yes, it’s true that I was invited to attend this UEFA B Level coaching course currently underway in Berlin, Germany, but, unfortunately, I’m not in a position to attend it as we are now in the middle of our pre-season training programme and I’m wanted by my club to be there on a full-time basis,” Maruwa said. Ndiraya is understood to be preparing to leave the country for a two-week attachment with an unnamed club in Belgium as part of a reciprocal programme with the Belgians who last year sent coaching consultants Billian Valery Jozef and Beelen Dirk Lode for a one-month stint at DeMbare.
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