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Mehluli Sibanda, Senior Sports Reporter
FOUR Zimbabwean aspiring footballers who recently attended training sessions at Sporting Clube de Portugal Soccer School in Johannesburg, South Africa are said to have really impressed with their standard of football described as being of high ability.
Alvin Dube, Talent Mwenga, Oscar Magejo, Dylan Gumbe were the youngsters who were in South Africa for 10 days last month. They went under the Harare-based Academy 2063.
Claivert Tshuma and Ronald Uraya were also meant to travel to South Africa but chose not to make the trip across the Limpopo River.
Regis Dzenga, the founder and president of Academy 2063, who accompanied the youngsters to South Africa, said the fine-tuning sessions went well with the Zimbabwean lads proving to be better than those found at the academy.
“Training went very well, the boys impressed. Their standard was significantly higher than those at Sporting.”
While in Mzansi, the boys got to meet South Africa-based Zimbabwean star Khama Billiat and visited his house where he gave them soccer boots from what he has gathered over the years.
“They had a chance to meet Khama Billiat and went to his house. Each player was given the latest pair of football boots from Khama’s collection,’’ Dzenga said.
As a way to get the boys to improve their game, funding has been secured for the four youngsters to shift to a South African school from this month where they will have an opportunity to study and train.
“Sponsorship secured by Academy 2063, we have arranged a high school for boys to study in SA and train there, starting in January. This opportunity gives them full exposure to start developing as professionals and compete with the best in SA,’’ Dzenga said.
According to Dzenga, the four stand a chance of going for trials at Sporting Lisbon in Portugal. Joao Braga, the Sporting Clube de Portugal Soccer School director is in Portugal at the moment and if all goes well, the Zimbabwean lads could be on their way to Sporting Lisbon.
“Sporting director is currently in Portugal on holiday but will use the time to arrange training/ trials at Sporting in Lisbon.”
Dube and Gumbe were in the Zimbabwean team that took part in the Coca-Cola Africa Cup where Zimbabwe were beaten by Tanzania in the final.
Magejo, a Copa Coca-Cola winner in 2017 was the Player of the Tournament when his school won the Proton-Surrey national Under-20 tournament at Marondera High School in October. — @Mdawini_29
Online Reporter